This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016

Smarter leaders?

Just this past weekend I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for my granddaughter's cheerleading competition and saw firsthand what the leaders have done to turn their city into a really, really good place to visit.

Macon has almost the same potential and resources, so to paraphrase what Donald Trump says about leadership, "Are their leaders smarter than our leaders?"

-- Rick Kitchens

Macon

Buy a bomb

For the better part of the past year, the U.S. and other major nations have been involved in negotiations with Iran over that nation's development of nuclear materials -- peaceful uses or a bomb? Those negotiations have ended, and most of what Iran wanted they now have, including the release of billions of dollars of Iran's money that has been embargoed as a deterrent.

All along we have been concerned about Iran's ability to build their own bomb. The issue of whether they could just buy a bomb from another country never seemed to come up, because, I guess, we assumed they could not afford it.

Now Iran and Russia have entered into a bosom-buddy friendship. They are partnering to save Bashar al-Assad's reign in Syria. One would assume that anything that Iran wants from Russia (and Russia is able to provide) would be possible.

We know Iran wants nuclear weapons, and that Russia has them. We also know that Russia's economy is in decline and they desperately need money. There are also plenty of other bomb customers for Iran to deal with.

Can anybody explain to me if I'm missing something? How in the world can the Obama administration claim they have prevented a nuclear-armed Iran?

-- Burnett Hull

Macon

Exchanging ideas

Thank you for the continued exchange between Dr. Bill Cummings and David Mann. (I've never met Mann, and don't know his titles.) I should like to address the question Mann presents in his January 17 column, about the definition of a Christian. Actually, I believe being a Christian is a matter of inner experience rather than third-person theological definition or pronouncement.

But given the setting of this question, is a Christian one who trusts and lives by the teaching and modeling of Jesus, the best way he knows or one who accepts and lives by the teachings and doctrines about Jesus as prescribed by religious authorities or dogma?

I do not presume to say which experience either man presents, or if either one considers these perspectives the same or different. I personally choose the first, but my own experience has been a matter of changing and growing in both areas over several decades.

I appreciate Cummings' columns. My limited contact with him has provided me with some of the most exciting and spirited dialogue about faith I've ever had. He and I are about the same age, but of vastly different backgrounds. We did not agree on everything, he's Catholic and I'm Baptist, but we could examine and research each other's comments in a common pursuit of personal friendliness and spiritual enlightenment.

Each allowed room for the other's experience with religious doctrine and ways of experiencing and sharing faith with mutual respect and the possibility of growth or personal spiritual development. Isn't that a "Christian" approach?

I could follow Mann's line of reasoning, though I do not agree with it. It seems to me more of a judgmental third-person approach, than an interpersonal search for the true nature of Christ and his teaching. I've never met him, and I may be wrong. I'll leave that discussion for another time.

In the meantime, thank you, Bill Cummings for those rich and delightful conversations we shared last spring. I'd love to have more. Until then, I'll continue to read your columns in The Telegraph regularly.

-- Carolyn Jones

Macon

Wrong attitude

Today's immigrants are running to safe havens instead dealing with the problems their submissiveness created. And once legal or illegally in a country like Germany, England, France or America, they're taken in by fellow countrymen already embedded. This strengthens their political power and overwhelms the local culture in which they live.

They organize to change the neighborhood and country they occupy into their image -- not to return to their homeland to change it. And it's this attitude that's frightening people.

-- Travis L. Middleton

Peach County

Big draw

We may wonder why Donald Trump is getting more television time than other presidential candidates. The answer is probably because he gets larger audiences, even when he does not make any sense. Advertisers pay big bucks for large television audiences. Follow the money. Are individuals who spend most time watching television the mostly likely voters? Probably not. Give them feasts and circuses.

-- Sam Marshall

Milledgeville

Trifecta

The planets, stars and moon must have been in perfect alignment. Three of The Telegraphs local letter writers (Faye, Jim and Frank) all made the Opinion page in Monday's edition. Slow day? Perhaps this could be an omen. Maybe Mary Worth will finally wander off into the desert and never return. Ya think?

-- Tom McGuire

Warner Robins

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 8:13 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 ."