This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015

What's happened?

A picture on the front of Sunday's Living Section of suggested Halloween costumes is alarming to me. I have worked with teenage girls for over 20 years in a variety of settings — rural, multicultural and suburban areas.

A trend that is rapidly rising with girls involves self-destruction and depression. When I saw the picture of a costume suggested from "Fifty Shades of Grey," I was sickened. Your picture chips away at the value of girls and women.

Do not tell me it is liberating nor empowering or in jest. Girls do not need anything else to make them question their worth. The author suggested a dog collar and leash, cheap handcuffs and a whip.

Really? It is now commonplace that we read in our daily newspapers stories such as infants being thrown off balconies in New York, a 19-year-old beaten to death by his parents, a child being left in a car to die by his dad on purpose, or a newborn abandoned on the side of the ride left to die by his mom.

The headlines in The Telegraph included the rapes of girls — a toddler, a 4-year-old, and a 5-year-old. What has happened to our valuing one another as important, worthy of respect and life held in the highest esteem?

— Malea Glenn

Kathleen

Don't lose heart

Fellow Christians and readers of The Telegraph, I am a Catholic and have been reading with interest and much amusement the columns of Bill Cummings since its inception. Please do not let this man place doubt in your mind and heart about your faith with nonsense questions and re-direction to cause you to lessen your faith in Almighty God and Jesus Christ.

This is a tactic of the devil and during this time in history we are all under attack, it seems from all sides, especially from the so-called "enlightened ones" who want us to question everything as "there are no absolutes."

I do not wish to denigrate the man as I think he is probably a wonderful person, but his reasoning and his thoughts are only his opinions and we all have them, don't we?

As far as philosophers and learned men go, there once was a learned man named Thomas Aquinas, who wrote but never finished the "Summa Theologica." He received a revelation from God that made him stop working on it and thus he made the statement, "What I have written seems like straw to me compared to those things that I have seen and have been revealed to me."

Again, it is stated, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."

So don't lose heart, continue to believe as the Lord wants you to. Besides, his column is really not his anyway, it's actually God's, as he owns everything.

— David Burkovich

Macon

Prayer allowed in schools

I do not believe there is a war on Christianity. Nor do I believe the government is forcing us to stop believing in God. Therefore, I disagree with Gary McCall, 90 percent of our population are Christians divided among 100-plus different and distinct denominations, each with its own doctrine.

Prayer and scripture reading were banned from school because non-Christians of faith were concerned that their children were being forced to participate in religious activities not of their choosing. They believed that this was demeaning to their faiths, and their children would feel they were not equal to the other students.

Atheists and agnostics did not think it was the responsibility of schools to conduct religious activities. Some Christians felt that in some instances one denomination's scripture interpretations and prayers were given preference over others.

God was not been expelled from school. A student can pray before eating lunch or taking a test. And, a student can offer a prayer of thanks after receiving a passing grade on a test. The courts have ruled that the majority cannot force their religious beliefs or practices on the minority.

Family, friends and faith are the foundation of an individual's character and morals. A few minutes of prayer in school will not teach one to be fair and tolerant. Nor will it teach one to be considerate. Nor will it teach one to be forgiving. Nor will it teach one that all beliefs are equal. Nor will it teach one not to be judgmental. I have faith that today's students are learning life's lessons at home and by adhering to their religion. I am confident that they will do a better job of resolving differences than previous generations.

— Jim Costello

Perry

Poignant memories

I read, with sad memories, Larry Walker's column in Sunday's paper about the case of polio in Perry in 1950. Macon experienced this tragic disease earlier in 1940. I was in Lanier Junior High for Girls. We lived in Ingleside and our next door neighbors were the Selby Bucks. Mr. Buck was the head couch at Lanier Boys High School and his wife was my junior high gym teacher.

I was about 13 years old and I remember Mrs. Buck coming to our house and talking to my mother about her oldest son, Blakely, who was in the hospital. Mrs. Buck was afraid to come inside our house because she might be contagious, so they sat outside on the front steps. At that time the disease was called infantile paralysis.

We already had heard of some other children who had caught the disease, and when my father came home that evening and heard Mrs. Buck's story about her son, he said we would be leaving town first thing in the morning. So, early the next day we packed, locked the house and got in the car and started driving north. We drove with no real destination. Remember, this wasn't many years after the Great Depression and people were making do as best they could. One thing many did was to turn their homes into "Tourist Homes" with a sign in the front yard. So, each evening we would look for one of these places to stay because they were a lot cheaper than a hotel, and I don't remember having motels at that time. And often you could get a meal as well as a room or two and a bathroom.

I don't remember how long we stayed away, but at each stop my father would ask the homeowner if there had been any reports of the dreaded disease in that location. When we returned to Macon the little Buck child had died, and a teenage boy in our neighborhood had gotten the disease in his neck and shoulders. Another boy who lived on Vineville Avenue was in an "Iron Lung" because that was the only way he could breathe.

One of my best friends, Mary Lee Greene, who was my younger sister's age, was stricken in her legs and spent her life on crutches although she never let it get her down. She loved life and we spent many good years at Fernandina Beach with our families. Mary Lee died a couple of years ago. I am sure that those who lived in Macon during that terrible time will remember it. I surely do.

— Jean Evans Weaver

Macon

'From the pulpit'

I hope that Rev. Andy Cook will still be a contributor to "From the pulpit," though he no longer has a pastorship. I like his interest in, and knowledge of, Israel and his bold statements about same-sex matters. True, he sometimes offends some people. Rev. Cook, however, is a servant of the Lord and not a servant of ours. If we have a servant, we expect that servant to be completely loyal to us and never disagree with us for as long as the servant holds the job. It is the way I tried to be with all of my many employers. The Lord has the same right to expect complete loyalty from his servants.

— Susan Ganus

Warner Robins

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 ."