Letters to the Editor

I couldn't resist. After reading this from the Reader Forum of the Peoria Journal Star for last Friday, February 12...

Prayers aren't helping
We had World War I - and the people prayed.

We had World War II - and the people prayed.

We had the Korean War - and the people prayed.

We had the Vietnam War - and the people prayed.

We're having the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the people are praying.

We've had tsunamis, earthquakes, riots, famine, AIDS, 9-11, plane, ship and car wrecks, cancer, polio, dictators, gangs, rapes, sexual abuse of children, lying politicians, drug abuse - you name it - and the people prayed, and prayed, and prayed.

If you truly believe that God created the heavens and Earth and that He is a "loving" God, why has He done nothing in the history of the world to stop this madness? After hundreds of billions of dollars have been given to churches and their leaders, not one single prayer has been answered in the history of civilization. Try to prove me wrong.

Ask your religious leader about this and he'll spout the usual "God works in mysterious ways!" Really? Prove to me that He is going to stop wars and famine and cure cancer, and then I might listen.

What better mind control could there be than inventing "Heaven" and "Hell" to control the people? How many times have you been told, "Stop that or you'll go to Hell!"?

Wake up, people.

John Cullen
Peoria

...I couldn't help it, and I sent the following last Saturday evening.

Dear Editor:

re: John Cullen's "Prayers aren't helping" in the Reader Forum of last February 12

I am tempted to observe that the wars ended. However I expect that Mr. Cullen would, as he does in his letter, continue to list more and more things that aren't happening the way the "God" he envisions ought to do things. Those familiar with the Holy Bible know that both scoffers and believers have been making such lists for thousands of years. Frankly such discussions today better prove the skills of the debaters, rather than the subject being debated.

To his demand that "religious leaders ... prove to me that He is going to stop wars,... and then I might listen," this Christian pastor responds: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

And when he begins to get that, I pray that he will be ready to listen -- a become part of a long conversation.

Yours sincerely,

The Rev. Steven P. Tibbetts, STS
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Peoria, Illinois

And leading off this morning's Journal Star Reader Forum, there it was, slightly edited, under the title "Proper beginning needed in prayer conversation."