This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015

Pay disparities

Judge Judy gets $40 million and the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the same. Our major corporations and businesses alike are looming examples of grossly unjustified compensation. The directors are supposed to look after everybody’s interest. It never happens. That relationship is flawed from its inception. The directors give little attention to those who make an organization work. Locally there are all too many examples. No names, but $200,000 to over $800,000 in total compensation when nurses and department heads earn far less yet produce 80 percent of the income. As an investor I see it constantly. Banks with their directors issuing 300,000 options to buy stock to themselves and top officers $50 million in total compensation, while branch managers and tellers earn nothing compared to their productive nature. And sadly, many of those jobs are being dramatically lost.

I have never been able to see the justification for these disparities.

— Joe Hubbard

Macon

Benefit of the doubt

To say that the United States is a Christian nation could imply either that we treat each other with tolerance and compassion or that we devalue the beliefs of non-Christians. As always, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

— Neal Snyder

Warner Robins

No attack, just fact

I would like for Craig Giddens to please explain how he thinks the Bible came to be? Does he believe God handed down these 66 books like the Ten Commandments given to Moses? The truth is, it took roughly two centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus for the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament to be chosen. Some 3,000 books and manuscripts were reviewed during this time, and several were seriously considered being added, but were not. It was actually not until 367 AD that the church father Athanasius first provided the complete listing of the 66 books belonging to the canon.

The Bible, as Protestants know it today, is not the final word. There are variations with which Protestants, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Coptics support, with some books being left out and others included. The Apocrypha is a collection of books canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not recognized by Protestants. The Gnostic Gospels are another collection of books not recognized but were important to many early Christians.

In all of this you can find translations of the Bible that leave out verses, or have textual variants. It really all depends on your denomination and the translation that you are using as to what you may find. In fact, the books Timothy 1 and 2 are even questioned as whether they were written by Paul, as are many books that are attributed to specific people. And no, The King James Version is not the original Bible.

The beginnings of the Christian church were very political in nature and the first organized church was the Roman Catholic Church. Even then there were factions that were teaching their own interpretations, just as there are today. Splits eventually arose within the church with the first big split being the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. The Protestant Reformation came later.

Today there are many denominations that claim to be Christian. They each believe in a specific translation of the Bible being the “one.” What you cannot deny is that the book known as the Bible includes books chosen by men and translated into many different languages from the original Hebrew and Greek by men. This is not an attack on God’s word or anyone’s faith. This is simply fact.

— Kelly Sullivan Joyner

Macon

FairTax issues

Alan Preston’s explanation of the FairTax was very informative. He states the 23 percent FairTax on all new purchases is an inclusive tax that will be included in the cost of a new item. The buyer will still have to pay all of the exclusive taxes such as sales tax and any local special purpose tax. On a $1,000 purchase the seller will send $230 to the federal government. This will replace the revenue that was previously generated by the income tax and will fund the government. He states the 23 percent FairTax on all pre-owned purchases is also an exclusive tax.

I have a few concerns. On the purchase of a new house the FairTax will be included in the cost. Therefore, a buyer may have to finance an additional $20,000 to pay the FairTax. An additional finance cost could be incurred on the purchase of a new, a used car or a pre-owned home to pay the FairTax. These additional financial costs could force buyers to purchase a house in a different community than desired or a down-sized vehicle. The FairTax will also be included in the cost of all services such as a haircut, car repairs and doctor visits.

The FairTax rebate check will be determined by the size of a family. Who will determine the amount? Who will determine if the family’s size has changed? Who will manage this program? How will an individual’s Social Security payout be determined? What portion of the FairTax will go toward Social Security? What portion of the FairTax will go toward Medicare?

I do not think corporations will be willing to pay a FairTax on all of the purchases and services required to manufacture a product. This will adversely affect their cash flow. Also, they will have to hire people to process FairTax money.

— Jim Costello

Perry

Just sayin’

I wonder if all the smart and bright people of the opinion/comment pages who call others stupid realize they are belittling themselves. Just sayin’.

— Faye W. Tanner

Macon

No sale here

I would like to say that as a resident in the Stone Edge Subdivision, I wholeheartedly agree with the two previous opinions submitted by Diane Gambrell and John Laughter. We already have a traffic problem in getting out of our subdivision now. I also think that having a four story development would look out of place in that location. There are other locations even on Zebulon Road that would be more suitable for this development. I suggest that Sierra/Southern Pines check these out. We don’t want what they are selling.

— Gail Rohde

Macon

Macon music legend

Now that Jones County has done a fabulous job on its memorial to Otis Redding and Macon also has one on the west bank of the Ocmulgee River at the Otis Redding Memorial Bridge, there is one more memorial needed in memory of the Rev. Pearly Brown. That saint walked the streets of Macon for many years singing his heart out glorifying his Lord and Savior. By the way, he’s not blind anymore.

— George Scoville

Macon

Yogi

It’s too bad that the pope’s visit took away the spotlight from Yogi Berra, the great Yankees’ baseball catcher and hitter. Yogi left us Sept. 22. He was 90 years old. I’ve never been a Yankees fan, but I loved Yogi; everyone did. He was an affable man with a unique sense of humor. He was not a tall man (5’7”), nor did he possess good looks, but he had a beautiful soul. He made us laugh.

I’m sure when he got to heaven, he kept Saint Peter and all of the angels in stitches over his double speak, he was one of a kind. May his soul rest in peace.

— Aaron McIntosh

Warner Robins

Who knew?

CNN’s Jon Austin and Rob Virtue reported on Sept. 28 that NASA spokesman John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, has announced that “Mars once had warm, salty seas, freshwater lakes and icy peaks and a fresh water cycle close to ours.” Jim Green, NASA planetary science division director, added that “Two-thirds of Mars’ northern hemisphere was a huge ocean that may have been as much as a mile deep. It had extensive water resources. Something happened on Mars, and it suffered a major climate change and lost its surface water.”

Who knew? There must have been conservatives and other man-caused climate change deniers on ancient Mars who spewed countless tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from their factories and coal-fired power plants and heedlessly drove their gas-guzzling SUV’s, eventually abusing their planet into a hot death. Either that or a major climate change event occurred on Mars for a reason that was completely independent of mankind’s activities.

In light of the above, one could be forgiven for wondering whether climate change completely independent of mankind’s activities could be occurring here on Earth as well.

— Bill Pitts

Centerville

School zone signs

School zone signs alert motorists that children are in the vicinity. Would it be possible for the exceptional children on Second Street to have one? I saw one on the Internet for $170 and some were cheaper. The majority of the other schools have them. A life is priceless.

— Renee Lee

Macon

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015 ."