Letters To the Editors

This is my final semester here at EMU and for the past three and a half years I have read the Weather Vane. And, for the past three and a half years, I have weekly read at least one article by someone complaining about the President of the United States. I will be the first to say that I do not agree with all of Bush’s policies, but you don’t see me writing a weekly article about how miserable he has made my life, which by the way, he hasn’t.

Every week someone complains about how Bush has damaged the environment, run up a massive debt, created a new poor class, etc. If the writers of these articles truly gave a rat’s ass about their complaints, they would do more than complain. Instead of crying foul about the environment, get off your butt and do something useful like planting trees, picking up litter, or stopping the waste of paper that your complaints occupy. I’m a broke college student like the rest of you, but instead of complaining about how Bush has made the country poor, go volunteer at a soup kitchen or organize a food drive. Do something besides complain.

Another complaint that is heard nearly every week is that Bush is violating our personal rights. This prompted me to look up the Bill of Rights to see how many of my guaranteed rights are being violated by Bush.

First are the freedoms of press, religion, and speech. I attend a religious school and am writing into a newspaper (if you can call it news) to voice my opinion. Second is the right to keep and bear arms. I own multiple guns, though none are on campus. Third is protection from quartering troops. There are not any soldiers living in my basement. Fourth is protection from unreasonable search and seizure. I haven’t had my house raided by the government, although my dorm room was randomly searched by my RD and CA, which could constitute a violation of the Bill of Rights. The fifth right is to due process. The sixth is trial by jury, and the seventh is civil trial by jury. Right number eight is prohibition of excessive bail, nine is the protection of other rights, and number ten gives power to the states. Reading over these Rights that the Constitution gives me, I can say that the Government of the United States of America has not violated one of my civil rights. In fact, the only right even closely infringed upon was done so by the authority of EMU, not the USA.

So, in conclusion, complaints about imagined personal offenses accomplish nothing except giving other people headaches. Stop complaining about how horrible your life is in this country. If you don’t like it, move. As the old German proverb goes, “Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.”

-Andrew Shantz

As humans, we are a meaning-making species. We delight in drawing parallels between events current and past, a quality which allows us to adapt far more quickly than other species. Christians in particular have a history of drawing historical parallels. The author of Revelations compares Rome to Babylon and certain prophets in the Old Testament compared Babylon to the even earlier Assyrians.

In this country, Christians have often struggled to find parallels between our contemporary situation and our Christian past. Many Christians have begun to compare our situation to that of Christians in Rome, but there is an earlier parallel that has yet to be drawn, even though it is the clearest parallel. We live during the second coming of the Canaanites.

“Canaanites” is a loose term that can be used for any polytheistic people encountered by the Jews in the time right after their creation as a people through the events surrounding the giving of the Law to Moses. In the Old Testament, that which is foreign to the nature and will of God is labeled Canaanite.

The Jews had a hard time living as a separate people in the midst of this very diverse group of people; it is interesting to note that the Bible has kind words for the Persian and Roman empires but there is only condemnation for the Canaanites. Their lives were full of decadence and immorality and it was for this reason that they were so seductive to the early Israelites. The Jews learned many habits from these people, including infant sacrifice, polygamy, and other assorted perversions. What saved the Jews from degenerating into another band among the people of Canaan was the commitment of some to the belief in one God, a jealous God who desired to keep his people separate from immoral living.

We are in the same circumstances as the earliest community of believers; we too live in a society that permits any immoral action and encourages a life of selfishness, but I am far less optimistic of our chances. When someone in this culture of permissiveness challenges the status quo and demands that the people of God live pure lives, they are derided as intolerant. We live in a world that claims no one; not even God has a right to tell us to do with our body. As long as tolerance is practiced instead of discipline, as long as sinful living is excused or ignored, there will be no people of God, merely another group of pagans, one among many with slightly different customs and rituals which in the end signify nothing.

-Adam Defibaugh