‘After the fall’

March 31 This is an encouraging article, showing an answer to prayer for Vietnamese Christians who have been through so much and yet find hope and joy in knowing Christ. By God’s mercy and for His glory, may the healing continue and include their persecutors. —Dick Friedrich on wng.org

‘Battle over books’

March 31 Emily Belz’s article rightly challenges the age-appropriateness of books advocating transgenderism, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgery for elementary-school students. Such practices are harmful for all ages. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness that needs our compassion and the help of mental illness professionals. —John L. Wiester / Buellton, Calif.

As a parent of a middle-school child who participated in the Oregon Battle of the Books this year, I reviewed all 16 books. Only four were worth reading while the others were trivial and badly written. Next year I will encourage my child to use his time elsewhere. —Laurie Hetherington on wng.org

I hope Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reads this article. The fact that books like George that promote transgenderism have credibility with media and school administrators explains why Christian parents and children are fleeing public schools. —Todd Finch on wng.org

Kids who don’t decide their own bedtimes are now allowed to think they can change into another gender. Adults are abusing their own children. —Katie Wilson on Facebook

Those who reject Biblical standards are now seeking to teach the next generation that sexual identity is a choice unrelated to birth or DNA. There is a price to pay when we reject God’s truth, and a price to pay when we stand up for it. —James D. (Dan) Marshall / Concord, N.C.

An award by a special interest group should not push a book onto reading lists. It’s rather like an author buying copies of his own book to make a bestseller list. —Ruth Hamel on Facebook

‘Failure to yield’

March 31 Thank you for this excellent piece. For the father to invoke the resurrection at the funeral of his son is to use the Word in its truest sense. —David Langan on wng.org

After reading this, I find it hard to see the keyboard with so many tears in my eyes. —Thomas Nally on wng.org

‘A Wrinkle in Time’

March 31 Thank you so much. I had doubted I wanted to watch this remake of one of my favorite childhood books. Some Christians excoriate Madeleine L’Engle for her theology, but the book helped a friend of mine, raised by Oxford-educated agnostics, see for the first time that good and evil are real and that the two sides are at war. —Ann Marshall on wng.org

I suspected that Disney would fail in translating this book, particularly L’Engle’s deeper ideas. Disney can’t promote ideas that reveal its own weaknesses and duplicity. —S. Nelson on wng.org

‘They didn’t know the rules’

March 31 Great column. It’s shocking that The Vagina Monologues is now too conservative for some people. —Joe Busher on wng.org

‘Prescription for failure’

March 31 I know it is just trading one drug for another, but methadone has helped many people. I have seen and read how so often rehab just doesn’t work. Yes, a holistic approach is best and Jesus makes a difference, but addiction changes the brain physically and chemically. It takes a long time and much motivation and prayer to heal that brain and return it to its natural state. God help us all. —Rexann Bassler on wng.org

When we seek to use drugs such as buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction, we should remember that heroin was developed many years ago to treat morphine addiction. —Ronald McCaully / Limekiln, Pa.

‘YouTuber views’

March 31 Those podcast recommendations for The Briefing and The World and Everything in It are fantastic. I am so glad to get some Christian radio to balance NPR. —Matt Connally on wng.org

‘War-gaming Korea’

March 31 Great interview. The situation in Korea is a huge game of chess. The bad news is that so often the least logical option, war, occurs despite the lose-lose scenario. The human predicament—it’s almost as if we need a Savior. —John B. Stone on wng.org

‘Rearview advance’

March 31 Regarding using cameras as rearview mirrors, I would say that the simpler the car is, the better, because repairs cost less. My Volkswagen taught me that the hard way. —Pauline Marie Ferrill on Facebook

‘Families in crisis’

March 31 Family homelessness is a complex problem with no easy answers, but it was encouraging to read of the positive outcomes Sophia Lee shared in this article. —Ramona Henspeter on Facebook

‘Before the board’

March 17 Excellent speech. Andrée Seu Peterson telling the hospital board members the truth about the horrific sins they are enabling by allowing abortions at their facility is the most loving thing she could have done for them. —Beth Daranciang on wng.org

It took Wilberforce many years and, undoubtedly, many hundreds of hours of unheralded labor crafting speeches to Parliament to reveal the truth of the slave trade in England. May Peterson press on. —Paul K. Lim on wng.org

‘A terminal wait’

March 17 This article blames the Trump administration for delay in immigration approvals, but finds no fault with Austria for expelling the Iranians. I am thankful our president is being cautious about allowing entry for potential terrorists posing as Christians. —Barry Dorsch / Fort Worth, Texas

Correction

Teenagers made up only 10 percent of the “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C. (“Teenagers rally,” April 14, p. 5).

More letters, emails, and comments we didn’t have space for in the print edition:

‘Battle over books’

March 31 I believe sex with children will be the next domino to fall in the sexual devolution. The quote in an earlier article (“Exclusive ties,” Jan. 20) from an independent bookseller who likes to give copies of George directly to children is an example of the rhetoric: “By focusing on … the child, you bypass the parents’ ideologies and give the child the authority to decide for herself or himself.” Soon anyone who cries foul will be denigrated as a hate-filled bigot. God help us. —Parker Benson / Tallassee, Tenn.

I am genuinely confused as to why therapists recommend hormones to bring the physiology of children with gender dysphoria into line with their mental state instead of the other way around. It seems more logical and less invasive to help individuals accept their biology rather than to rail against it. —Mandy Houk on Facebook

‘A time to speak’

March 17 I am appalled that MSU trustee Joel Ferguson, who suggested Rachael Denhollander and others who accused Larry Nassar of sexual assault are just looking for a payday, has not had the propriety to resign. I hope that we Michigan voters turn him out when his present term ends. Someone with that attitude toward abuse victims has no place leading a major university. —Paul Bryant on wng.org

‘A well-behaved woman’

March 3 In quoting Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s famous line about well-behaved women not making history, I wish you had noted that Ulrich was arguing for historians to study “well-behaved” women rather than focus on those who push the envelope culturally and socially. She and other feminists have for decades argued in books such as A Midwife’s Tale that Janie B. Cheaney’s mother and women like her were history-makers and worthy of study. —Marta Crilly / Boston, Mass.