Monday, February 3, 2014
A recent poll that announced Chattanooga the No. 1 Bible-minded city in America can only be understood against the background of the competition.
A city in the Bible Belt being compared with other cities at the opposite end of the spectrum in the secular North should really have little to boast about. The fact is, there has been a continual decline in Bible orientation all across America.
It is no wonder that in Chattanooga, where there is a Christian church for every 100 people, there should be more Bible influence and knowledge than in Buffalo, N.Y., which is 95th, where the ratio is one church for every 350 people. Just by the numbers, Chattanooga has an edge on Buffalo.
One local pastor claims that 64 percent of Chattanooga's residents attend church every Sunday. Yet the Philanthropy Roundtable reported recently that the divorce rate in Chattanooga is 50 percent higher than the national average. Also, Chattanooga had the fifth worst out-of-wedlock birth rate of 128 other cities in the United States.
Yes, we have a large number of churches, but the No. 1 city has some work to do.
JAMES WEST, Ringgold, Ga.
OK, granted that at least part of cartoonist [Clay] Bennett's reason for being is to rile so-called social conservatives, but a recent cartoon linking the right-to-life movement with both a fictitious "demon child" and an alleged "war on women" is so far over the top as to leave one almost speechless.
Even though this is his political statement, and apparently he is accountable to no one, at some point shreds of truth must apply to public discourse. Ignore the connection here to the promo for the latest Hollywood horror film and focus only on the link between the right-to-life movement and making war on women.
First of all, no one has ever offered a scintilla of evidence that some group (Republicans?) is seeking to destroy women. "War" is a strong word. But if the truth were any part of this, he would have to acknowledge that half of those aborted (more than 25 million) were females; that countless thousands of women who have had abortions have outspokenly regretted their decisions, and that abortion providers have made countless millions in offering their "choice" to vulnerable women.
Where's the truth to support Bennett's claim, or does the truth matter at all?
GARY LINDLEY, Lookout Mountain, Ga.