Mailbag

Erasing the Uyghurs

Aug. 14—Doug Olson/Chattaroy, Wash.

June Cheng’s article reminded me how truly awful the Chinese Communist government can be.

Sermons to go

Aug. 14—Bob Francis/Wakefield, Mass.

The only plagiarism that should take place in the writing and preaching of a sermon is of the Bible. God has already given us unfettered use of it.

Susan MacKenzie/San Jose, Calif.

Who cares who plagiarizes whom? If the preacher is led by the Holy Spirit, there will be a message from the Lord.

Dick Strifert/Exeter, N.H.

I remember attending a worship service at a church in Vermont in the early 2000s. The guest pastor was a well-­respected leader. His message repeated word-for-word a radio sermon I had heard earlier in the week. I was dumbfounded.

Don Wilkinson/East Berlin, Pa.

No one, to my knowledge, has ever “borrowed” the content of a sermon I preached, but I would be delighted to have them do so if God would use the message to accomplish His purpose.

Questions about IQ

Aug. 14—Bruce P. McKechnie/Frazer, Pa.

Marvin Olasky’s sharp observation that “those who can flop over a lower bar with minimal effort do not develop the muscle they need to keep up during the next stage of competition” reminds me of President George W. Bush’s speech to the NAACP, where he noted “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Crisis and opportunity

Aug. 14—Rebecca Hill/Moscow, Idaho

Thank you for Mindy Belz’s excellent column and its concern for “the least of these,” whom our Lord has commanded us to remember (Matthew 25:40–45).

David Moses/Fort Worth, Texas

A renewed focus and willingness to welcome refugees and asylum-seekers was one of the few things I looked forward to regarding the new administration. Why is there such a reluctance to move on this?

Baltic beauty

Aug. 14—Charles Robbins/Winston-Salem, N.C.

I doubt I will ever be able to listen to the Latvian Radio Archive, but reading this article makes me feel as if I were lifted to heaven to listen to the angels sing.

Against the odds in an Olympic pool

Aug. 14—Ben Cook/Monon, Ind.

I watched Bowe Becker’s exciting race live on TV. I had no idea about his condition. Thank you for a great story.

Old letters

Aug. 14—Michelle Ule/Sonoma County, Calif.

I’ve been returning old letters to friends, and they appreciate rereading about their lives.

Steve Thompson/Oak Harbor, Wash.

I’ve kept so many letters. I’ve got bins full. I’m scanning all the letters my faithful weekly letter-writing mom wrote to me during my first year in college and sending the particularly noteworthy original ones back to her and my dad. I plan to send weekly letters to my son for his first college semester this year.

Corrections

China’s one-child policy began in 1979, 10 years before the Tiananmen Square massacre (“Communists of the Caribbean,” Aug. 14, p. 11).

Allyson Reneau worked from the United States to help coordinate the evacuation of 10 Afghan schoolgirls (Human Race: “Saved,” Sept. 11, p. 16).

J.R. Richard died at age 71 (“An All-Star’s hard life,” Sept. 11, p. 68).

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

Sermons to go

Aug. 14—Kathryn Presley/Bryan, Texas

Whether you are a pastor or a Sunday school teacher, preparation should begin on your knees, and His anointing should characterize a sermon or lesson. Otherwise, no matter how hard you work, the product will only be wood, hay, and stubble.

Andrew H. Selle/Essex Junction., Vt.

Let’s not miss the big picture: The preacher “speaks the oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11) as “an ambassador for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). It’s not a term paper. We don’t need reams of footnoted citations coming from the pulpit.

Calvin O. Sanders Jr./Dawson, Ala.

I think this article may be a solution looking for a problem. My pastor studies many resources to prepare his sermons, and I am sure he has used material stored in his brain that he has no idea of its origin—it could be a thought from 20 years ago or from yesterday.

Crisis and opportunity

Aug. 14— Caleb Hurley/Chesapeake, Va.

As Christians, we need a renewed focus on helping the poor inside and outside of our country. We need to allow the vetted to come in, especially those from Afghanistan during this critical time.

Baltic beauty

Aug. 14—Joan Brauning/Williamsport, Pa.

I don’t ordinarily read Arsenio Orteza’s column because he rarely features classical music, so thank you for covering “serious” music like the Latvian Radio Archive.

Art the hard way

July 17—Griggs Hull/Star, Idaho

Reading your article about Jake Van Wyk’s lithography stones reminded me of a few I still have from my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather’s printing business in Tacoma, Wash. And alongside those memories is my dad’s typesetting business across the street. I’m pretty sure there were 10 Linotype machines in that tiny storefront. I earned college money printing log tags stamped on rolled aluminum with heat-set ink, then sent to logging companies all over the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. Wonderful memories of simpler times.