November 28

‘Fat of the land’

As an avid WORLD reader and a family physician, I thank you for this article on obesity. Exercise and healthy eating, as encouraged by Michelle Obama, are two pieces of the solution. Other factors include genetic defects, ethnicity, place of residence, poverty, and the availability of healthy foods. Obesity is a serious and complex problem, but progress is possible with a multidisciplinary approach.

Elizabeth A. Buchinsky / Manassas, Va.

Today we’re always telling kids to get exercise. No one had to do that when I was young. The food I eat today is probably healthier than what we grew up on, but I don’t remember snacking all the time. We had three meals as a family, and that was the only time we ate. It’s insane trying to address this problem from the top down.

Bill Powers on wng.org

Our 4-year-old granddaughter looked at your cover and said to her grandmother, “Look Mimi, broccoli makes you fat!”

Vernon Peterson / Kingsburg, Calif.

Another reason to be suspicious of liberalism: broccoli.

James Hickman / Worthington, Ohio

Maybe the answer isn’t providing the right food but restricting electronic devices. Boredom is a great motivator, and without video games a child might go jump rope outside instead.

Joellyn Clark on wng.org

The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a disease; hopefully this will induce physicians to pay more attention to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for the treatments and medicine required to battle it.

Andrew Kuzyk / McDonough, Ga.

‘College math’

Most colleges and universities need to come down out of the ivory tower and focus on practical ways to equip students for life and leadership. Colleges that discover new and better ways to equip students without loading them up with debt will be the new leaders in higher education.

Alan McTier on wng.org

I have four teens and have saved what I can, but I can’t afford to send my oldest to a Christian college without him taking on debt. He’ll likely earn his degree from worldly professors. I pray that the Lord will protect his heart and that his potential for the kingdom will not corrode. We have made Christian higher education so costly that we force students to choose between debt and the world.

Jim Willson / Nesbit, Miss.

At some point the truth that higher education is badly overpriced will reveal itself. I suspect that online colleges and trade schools are beginning to fill the void left by bloated brick-and-mortar institutions that have continued to degrade their curricula. Welcome to capitalism.

Greg Samson / Coeur D’Alene, Idaho

It is time to end the concept of a liberal arts education and require students to take only those courses necessary for a specific career.

Russell Guetschow / Vicksburg, Mich.

Please do not put all schools in the same basket. There are great Christian schools that provide students with a Christian worldview along with the skills and knowledge needed to get a job. Andrée Seu Peterson makes some valid points, but other reasons for higher tuition include ever-increasing health insurance costs and regulatory and accreditation demands. Finally, don’t students have some responsibility for taking out $50,000 in loans for a degree that doesn’t lead to a job?

Stephen Crane on wng.org

‘Feeding “friends”’

Facebook can be an easy mission field: free, available 24/7, air-conditioned, and you don’t even have to get out of your pajamas. I wish more believers would use Facebook for sharing their faith as easily as they share about their lives.

Lori Baker Galloway on Facebook

In my experience, Facebook disagreements almost always degenerate into shouting matches in which we treat profile pictures as the embodiment of an idea rather than a human being. We don’t talk to each other; we talk at each other. If this is our Mars Hill, it’s a pretty sad substitute.

Hans Decker on wng.org

I occasionally get in Facebook discussions about Christianity. They help me to sharpen my beliefs, if nothing else. I wish more Christians would follow Janie B. Cheaney’s advice, because so many posts by Christians do not speak the truth in love; they just bring scorn to the faith.

Shiv Kapoor on wng.org

‘The Peanuts Movie’

The only flaw in this movie was the pop music. The producers should have maintained the spirit of Vince Guaraldi’s original music.

Julie Noyes on Facebook

November 14

‘Blowing their tops’

I read this article with great disappointment. Living in the West Virginia coalfields for the past 35 years has given us a greater appreciation for the hardworking miners here. Many evangelical Christians support mountaintop removal, and mining companies that are reclaiming the land with good conservation techniques are practicing good stewardship.

Cindy Kearns / Beaver, W.Va.

‘Houses taken over’

How much interference in churches will Christians put up with? Just as parents who put their children in public schools tolerate increasingly outrageous conditions, church people will by and large go along with government diktats. But when the tax breaks are revoked, the buildings lost, and the fair-weather churchgoers have departed, whatever is left will be the Church.

John Nixdorf / Naperville, Ill.

‘Blaming the meds’

Julie Borg presented a refreshing approach on the link between antidepressants and violence. As a person who has struggled with chronic clinical depression for years, I’m usually upset by evangelicals demonizing the depressed and scoffing at medicine in simplistic ways.

Tim Laitinen / Arlington, Texas

‘Looking for Mr. Butterfield’

The huge difference between Nixon and Hillary Clinton is that she is not currently in a government position, so she cannot be impeached. But she may be held to account if she is convicted of lying under oath; her testimony in the Benghazi hearing may provide a baseline for later charges. Her behavior toward the families of those killed because of her incompetence was appalling, but her arrogance may be the rope that hangs her, metaphorically speaking.

Mary Jo Hearn / Albuquerque, N.M.

October 31

‘Lines of communication’

I am frustrated by the presidential debates in both parties. What candidate in his right mind believes that ISIS and its affiliates can be “defeated”? A ghost that travels the world, activated by replaceable leaders and motivated by Quranic beliefs, cannot truly be eliminated. On healthcare, why don’t candidates talk about ideas for increasing competition among insurance companies? Do any candidates have viable solutions to the long-term shortfall for Social Security and Medicare? Do they realize how an increasing number of doctors no longer accept Medicare and Medicaid patients because the payments are so ridiculously low?

Jim Craig / Richland Center, Wis.

‘Fallen and forsaken’

This article was truly eye-opening about the atrocities of ISIS. Thank you for the fresh perspective on the Middle East and Christians.

Caleb Shoemaker / Cypress, Texas

WORLD Around the World

Copenhagen, Denmark Submitted by Bonnie Eastong

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