Your letters

Never do anything against conscience even If the state demands it.

Albert Einstein

Clone The Editors?

Because I do not want to miss a copy of The Human Quest, I am immediately renewing my subscription. However, the thought also occurred to me that if the Journal is to continue the same standard of excellence for many years to come, we might consider cloning the editors.

HELENE SHERMAN

Ellsworth, WI

Americans United History

Americans United has developed excellent means of community outreach. I applaud! This is imperative. But as an oldtimer, I remember entering because of a chance word of mouth. Forty-nine years ago, in New York, dining with friends, I heard someone comment that church schools had no business getting tax-payers' money. A new group was opposing European-type state support for churches. I woke up. How to think of Roman Catholic intervention in hospitals that receive state support?- Call the new group, POAU, my friends said. THE CHURCHMAN has let them have office space.-What is THE CHURCHMAN?-The oldest Episcopalian journal, they told me.

I visited the office, learned the basics of the program, and was soon invited to serve on the Board of Directors. I did some chores, helped at a joint?) meeting with the ACLU. Then POAU moved to Washington. I tried to retain a part in the work, talking hither and yon about church/state separation. Its harder than I thought. Mention religion and someone hears only hate or love-hostility or proselytizing. Try approaching via a topic like taxes, or sex education, and the air is charged. Nevertheless, communication is becoming easier. AU and a company of scholars have spread the ideals of liberty without encroachment on justice under the laws of the land. I believe America can realize these ideals. Yet new hydra heads keep popping out. The price, we're reminded, is eternal vigilance.

ELIZABETH LANSING

Sanford, NC

Hope Given

As long as we have a journal like The Human Quest, there is hope! Best wishes for a long life.

J. JACHIMOW

Arstrong, B.C. Canada

Old Subscriber

Sending a check for ten dollars this month, with more to come later. This ninetyfour year old lady needs medication. My health problems are making a huge hole in my Social Security check. Please bear with me. I don't wish to miss a single issue of The Human Quest.

LUCILLE RODRIGUEZ

Tampa, FL

Aid To Nicaragua

The latest United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranks conditions around the world based on a number of statistics. These include life expectancy, per capita income, infant mortality, malnutrition levels, access to clean water, adequate health care, literacy rates and the like. Current ranking places Nicaragua only above Haiti in the western hemisphere. Behind these chilling statistics is a world of pain and misery. Our clinic now gives medical attention to about six thousand people. A gynecology program seeks to secure favorable conditions for the start of life. Our full time nurse provides social services as well as going into the neighborhood to discover common illnesses and to prevent them whenever possible. New Horizons provides education at all levels. We still run the nursery school for eighty nine children who are given one hot meal a day.

SOLVEIG DALE ESKEDAHL

International Helping Hands Ltd.

PO. Box 60, 9 Lincoln Street

Newton Highlands, MA 02161

Hall of Fame

Lester Hayes (Jan-Feb issue) suggests a National Citizenship Hall of Fame to recognize "true patriots in our national history." He suggested dissenters to the Alien and Sedition Acts, abolitionists, anti-McCarthyites, pro civil righters, and anti-Vietnam War dissenters. May I suggest the men who tried to stop fascism in Spain (and thus prevent World War 2) by fighting for the loyalist cause in Spain. A few of these brave men who tried to prevent the holocaust of WW II are still alive. They belong in that Hall of Fame.

MILTON ARONSON

St. Pete Beach, FL

Losing Hope

Thank you for another edition of The Human Quest. The January-February issue addresses: the bottom lines on vital issues. But it is much like Don Quixote's tilting at windmills. Where do we start our protests? We are inundated with extremes, leaving a citizen numb. As I see it, hope is losing the race yet it stumbles along with a dazed jockey. One small thing: can the pope lift the US embargo on Cuba? We will all do our best in 1998, including The Human Quest.

MARY WHITTALL

Deerfield Beach, FL

Privacy For Sexual Practices

When I received the January-February issue of The Human Quest, it literally fell open to the Church of England article. I was appalled. I wish to know why my Episcopal church that I love dearly wastes time on trashy, tabloid, talk-show sexual items, leaving unattended more important problems such as homelessness, racism, illiteracy, poverty, etc. Cannot people be left a shred of human dignity and privacy? Do these hateful exchanges show respect for the dignity of every human being as in our baptismal covenant (Book of Common Prayer, page 306)? I think not. In my parish, people-gay, straight, families, singles, women, men of all races and ages-relate to each other as people. Why the hierarchy of the churches cannot follow suit is beyond me. Bishop Spong is a kind, compassionate man, gentle and courteous in person. The radical right, George Carey, et al, should try relating to the bishop as a person. They might like him. Finally, all of us, Bishop Spong included, ought to grow up and get our adolescent eyes and minds off each other's sexual practices and beliefs. This dialogue is tiresome and fruitless. Secular society wallows in it. I for one will do as I please sexually, with or without ecclesiastical approval. I am not alone. It's time for the church to move on. Shall we attack poverty? With Bishop Spong's brilliance and courage on our side we could work miracles even here in Washington.

YVONNE L. FARRELL

Washington, D. C.

NCARL Coalition

We have joined with several other national organizations in creating a new coalition, which is forming a new bond with people at risk. The National Coalition To Protect Political Freedom is joining together many national organizations to support groups who have been targets of political harassment. With the passage of the antiterrorism act, the FBI is now authorized by law to engage in very broadbased investigation of political activity previously protected by the First Amendment.

RUTH CALVIN EMERSON

National Committee

Against Repressive Legislation

3321 12th St. NE, 3rd Floor

Washington, D.C. 20017

More For Hall of Fame

I have been a subscriber to THE CHURCH_ MAN/The Human Quest since January, 1981. Never have I received an issue that did not have first quality articles on human events, human endeavors or sufferings, and how to right wrongs in our so-called democratic society. All issues of The Human Quest since 1981 have an honorable place in my library.

As Lester H. Hayes' letter in the Jan.Feb. '98 issue said, "Every author in this Human Quest meets, in my view, every criterion for induction into a Hall of Fame." I agree with Hayes 100%!

I also wish to add that the vast majority of readers of The Human Quest, as witnessed by their letters, are thinking people of compassion who wish to turn our country from a "so-called democracy" to a real democracya beacon of true enlightenment for most peoples of the world to admire.

LEONID S. POLEVOY

Salt Lake City, UT

Iraq Crisis and World Law

We should inform Iraq that we will destroy our nuclear weapons, destroy all poison gas, and eliminate 10 of our 21 $2-billion each Stealth bombers, if they will destroy all poison gas, and the making of nuclear weapons. That is tit-for-tat! We have through the embargo killed over 200,00 children in Iraq in the Year Of The Child (United Nations). Stop the killing, stop the making of bombs, stop making poison gas! Prosecute all criminals in governments that make A-bombs, poison gas, or weapons of destruction. That is what the World Court is for, and that is World Law!

RODGER W. AXFORD

Tempe, AZ

Quest Appreciated

Your magazine is read with considerable interest, and Bishop Spong is always invigorating. Yesterday I attended the Episcopal church in Caldwell, and the congregation recited the Nicene Creed, and the Communion was a re-enactment of a sacrifice made for sin. Please have Bishop Spong do an article on this.

With much appreciation for the books of Bishop Spong's that I have read, I would appreciate an article in The Hwnan Quest regarding matters of intellectual honesty and personal integrity. The prayer book of the Episcopal Church urges the congregants to make affirmation through the Nicene Creed. Check enclosed for the work you do.

JAMES F. MOORE

Caldwell, ID

Copyright The Human Quest Mar/Apr 1998
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