Mr. Bruns:

I have no hate against you but when you write such things as homosexuality is an abomination and "ungodly hogwash" without thinking there is even the possibility that some people may have been born differently than you, it seems to the observer from afar that the hate is in you. Here is one of your letters:

Ungodly hogwash

It has come to my attention how numerous corporations and businesses support the gay agenda by giving priority status to gay and lesbian organizations.

Not only is this ungodly but also discrimination toward Christian and other organizations that are godly and having Christian morals and values.

Concerning gay rights or gays being a minority, this is hogwash and devilish. Gays and lesbians have the same constitutional rights as any American citizen, and gays and lesbians are definitely not minorities but are definitely an abomination to the Lord God through Christ Jesus and a reproach toward mankind!

Rodney R. Bruns

That was a mean and hateful tirade against a part of our society that has been demeaned and put down for too many years, along with blacks, women and any people whose skin color was not white.

Mr. Bruns, too many times your letters throw out hate against many members of our society like gays, agnostics, atheists, etc. I believe Jesus Christ loved everyone, maybe you should reread those passages of your Bible.

To Mr DeSpain:

The real answer to America's problems is getting rid of,
and let me spell this out for you slowly, so you can comprehend:

G.E.O.R.G.E W. B.U.S.H

gingersnapp - Thank you for your insightful posts. You are right on the mark regarding both of these terrible letters from misguided people. People like these two are what is wrong with our world.

only in st joseph........ i have never read a newspaper which publishes such unbelievable tripe. don't most letters to the editor have some reference to an article or item of news interest? this whole public forum on religion does not belong here, imo.

gingersnapp and dondill:

On one hand you say that in essence Bruns and DeSpain are religious fanatics and represent what is wrong with America and the world.

On the other hand, you say that George W. – who is actively fighting religious fanatics who have openly declared war on and attacked the civilized world many times – is the problem also.

We have no one to blame for our current situations except ourselves. We have been warned for years what would happen if we kept accosting our planet. We choose to be apathetic and called those warning us crackpots or doomsdayers. Now that we are seeing the evidence such as severe weather changes....we want to say it's God's doing.

As for G.E.O.R.G.E.W.B.U.S.H....who put him in office? I don't think he just waltzed in and took over when no one was watching. GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE ....I think that means THE PEOPLE need to get involved, or at the very least speak up, instead of whining.

Alot of todays ills could be solved by simple solutions:
A. Quit finger pointing....wasn't attractive when we were children....it's not attractive now.
B. Take responsibility...whether it's for the planet, our government, or raising our children.
C. RESPECT....each other and the environment.

Very well said whetta2! Get rid of partisanship in government and you'll remove a large part of our problems. If we had representatives in the house, senate and as president that voted for the people instead of for the party, we wouldn't be where we are today. Dalearch very nice point as well. Dondill get off the "I'm better than you" medication. Show some respect to other's opinions. There's only one god, and it isn't you!

Whetta2 you say: As for G.E.O.R.G.E.W.B.U.S.H....who put him in office? Well I can guarantee you it wasn't me, I worked hard in 2004 for Kerry and the Supreme Court put him in office in 2000.

Again....he did not just walk in and take over...if we do not like how our government is....we need to get off our collective butts and insist on changes. Boo-hooing about it does't change anything. Perhaps yelling and demanding change at the top of our collective lungs to those that are suppose to represent us might help. We can be part of the problem or we can be part of the solution. If anyone believes that the President bears sole responsiblity for the our state of affairs.....re-examine how government works.

By the Way as a counter-offensive to the "Ungodly Hogwash" letter, my husband sent this and the News Press never saw fit to print it:

After reading the letter Ungodly Hogwash, I felt compelled to write about Mr. Bruns’s statement that gays and lesbians are being given priority status by certain companies.

I am an employee of American Airlines which is a company that proudly supports the GLBT community. GLBTs do not ask for any special rights, only for the human and American right not to be discriminated against.

This “special rights” theme is rhetoric by the religious right to mask pro-discrimination policy positions. Seeking protection from inequality in America should not be seen as a special right or a priority status but as an absolute right. It is certainly hypocritical of religious believers to favor restrictions on gays when they benefit from and defend special rights for themselves.

A few years ago American Airlines was attacked by a host of religious right leaders for its anti-discrimination policies for gays which they said promoted discrimination against their religious employees. This was so ridiculous that American’s own Christian employees disavowed it.

As a matter of fact American Airlines is dedicated to anti-discrimination and respect in all aspect of life with fourteen Employee Resource Groups. Their mission statement is: "Our commitment is to having a workplace that is permeated with dignity, respect and kindness. The evidence of this commitment must be more than what we do — it should be a bright, clear expression that emanates from our core values." This covers not only the GLBT community, but all religions, ethnicities, working moms, parents and employees over forty.

It is Mr. Bruns right as an American to believe that homosexuality is an abomination, but it is not his right to demand certain members of our society be discriminated against. Bigotry, intolerance and hate should not be an American or a moral value.
Mr. Gingersnapp

Liberals would have us believe much of America's population is stressed out and have "only their guns and religion to cling to." Others, even more desperate, find succor only in their insane hatred of President Bush.

I just love the way people who either don’t have the mentality to understand, or are too intellectually lazy to think things through, always say “the Supreme Court put George Bush in office.”

To set the record straight – Bush won the first count. Since the margin that he won by was less than one half of one percent, this triggered an automatic recount by Florida law.

Bush won the recount also, but it was still very close.

Gore then tried to pull a fast one and got a Florida court to order manual recounts in only four heavily Democratic counties: Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach & Volusia counties. The Supreme Court stopped this for obvious reasons.

In all there were five counts of the votes, Bush won all of them.

heritage, here we go again, what is funny is that you of all people are trying to tell people what they can and can't talk about. you don't have to respond.

Gingersnap - That is ridiculous that your husband's letter did not get printed. Why does the paper continue to print these hate-filled letters. These letters are an embarassment to our community. I have never seen deranged letters of this nature published in newspapers in other cities that I have visited. Newspapers should not be the forum for this kind of hate speech. By the way daleurp - you are wrong. The Supreme Court did install Bush as our leader. Recounting of the votes was stopped. So quit with all of your misstatements Daleurp.

dondill

I think you have some serious problems.

I'm gonna have to join the dalearch and whetta2 fan clubs.....Well said again. The liberal thinking can only point one finger and that is at Bush. Try to remember who controls the house and the senate. Once again, it comes down to partisan politics ruining America. Bush only has veto power, not bill passage power. You gotta have it go thru the congress, thus your buddies have a say in every crappy law that gets passed (or doesnt).

I am trying to make some sense here about the Democratic Congress not passing bills. Let's say they pass a bill (and for argument's sake, let's use the stem cell research bill) and it gets vetoed by Mr. 28% approval, then said bill is DOA. With the slim dem majority in Congress, there is no way to get the 2/3rd majority to over-ride, because the minority still votes with Mr. 69% disapproval rating (the highest in the history of ratings for any president.) And you are blaming the Dems for bills not getting passed?! I believe you must be living in an alternate universe!

dalearch, Gore won the popular vote in Florida, Bush won the Electoral vote, which is the only vote that maters in Presidential elections. It's not the first time it has happened, 1948 Truman over Dewey. Dewey won the popular vote, Truman the electoral.

cubbies, i think?? that there was never a count on the popular vote which showed that gore was the winner, to my knowledge. all the recounts showed that gwb won by the slimmest margin.

cubbies & heritage:

Actually, Gore won the popular vote nationwide & Bush won the electoral vote nationwide.

Bush won the popular vote - very narrowly - in Florida. This gave him the electoral vote in Florida.

gingersnapp:

So following your line of logic, are you saying that the Democratic Congress should just give up and not try to pass any bills?
You use one bill concerning a highly emotional issue for both sides as an example.

Corn and Oil,

I would like to inform you that there has been ethanol plants the past 13 years, actually there has been ethanol plants in full production for over 20 years. It is good that the farmer is finally getting a real price for the corn that he grows. And by the way do you realize that the blender of the gas and alcohol gets a 0.53 cent a gallon tax credit by our government. Where do you think that money goes? Not into the consumers pocket. Into someone elses pocket. The ethanol plants are only getting about $2.30 a gallon far from the $3.50 at the pump for regular gas!!! Also do you realize that the U.S only uses about 10 percent of the corn grown here for food consumption? The ethanol industry in a whole uses around 30 percent. Do the math. Oh by the way there is only 12 cents worth of corn in your cornflakes that you eat for breakfast.
Ethanolman

Ginger, if you think life in America is going to get any better just as soon as Boooooosh is out of office, you are setting yourself up for a pretty crushing disappointment. Do not delude yourself into thinking Obama, Clinton or McCain will be any better--and I'm not saying the current Oval Office occupant is giving me much to cheer about. But whether you know it or not, the approval ratings of Congress have consistently been running about 10 percent lower than those of Boooooosh, and deservedly so.

Your condescending tone toward Mr. Despain in which you slowwwly spell out Bush's name indicates to me that you have not had home training. There are better ways to make your arguments.

I am flabbergasted and appalled that the 2000 presidential election in Florida continues to receive this sort of discussion. The flat-out truth is that at least one national television news (?) network called Florida for Gore before the Central time zone precincts in Florida's conservative panhandle had closed. This was a brazen attempt by the patently leftist network(s) to steal the 2000 election for Al Gore by disenfranchising Florida's Central time zone voters through blatant, deliberate misinformation. And I haven't even gotten to Florida's Supreme Court or hanging chads. Sheesh.

Shifting the focus directly to Mr. Despain's letter: Thank you for writing. There is no question that our nation collectively must redouble its efforts to heed 2 Chronicles 7:14--that we must humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways, and ask God for help so that our land may be healed. But I'm not ready to conclude that America won't continue to experience trials and tribulations once we more perfectly do the above. I think it's an ongoing consequence of the fall of Adam and Eve. It will continue to rain on the just and on the unjust.

But the best chance of us overcoming our societal ills is to follow the two great commandments of Jesus: to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. These things are totally intertwined. We can't really love God unless we love our neighbor; and we can't fully love our neighbor unless we know, love, and surrender to God too. Let's keep running the race, as did Saint Paul!

ginger,
You live in your so called "alternate universe". Remember, you are the minority. Even though you didn't vote for Bush, the majority did. Blame them! Thus giving him veto power against any partisan laws he doesn't want to go thru. Please note my other comment you seem to want to ignore. The partisan politics is the biggest problem and your liberal buddies are as much to blame as anyone. As for your approval and disapproval ratings, your little liberal press fantasy world must have forgotten the wonderful world of your beloved Jimmy Carter. Oh, for the days of double digit inflation and nearly 20% interest rates. The ratings that you like to refer to have just become big, thanks to the liberal media and people like yourself.