Mailbag

2023 News of the Year

While I enjoyed the recap of 2023, I think your editors made a mistake. They included “Ohio backs abortion ‘right’” in the Life section. It should have been in the Disasters section.
     Gayle Snyder / Raleigh, N.C.

Trading TV for TikTok

This generation isn’t any more passive about the news than previous generations. It seems clear from your article that more than 70 percent of today’s American media consumers rely on mainstream sources, which are no more trustworthy than PBS, ABC, CBS, and NBC of the 1970s.
     Doug Perkins / Wilmington, Del.

Stop, rock, and roll

I am an old rocker, and I can relate to how we have had to skip over a few bands and songs for the sake of the gospel, but for those oldies that bring us joy without blaspheming Him, I agree, friend, crank it up!
     Stephanie Boda / Grand Junction, Colo.

My heart weeps after reading Lynn Vincent’s call for the faithful to embrace the siren songs of our former anti-Christian days. Would it not be better to call for a playlist that recognizes the stellar use of God-given talents to glorify the Giver of the gifts rather than one that glorifies the gifted, especially those who exemplify what it means to run away from God?
     Michael Lewis / North Hampton, N.H.

I, too, jumped on the Beatles bandwagon early on. Meet the Beatles! was the first album I ever bought. I now love singing any style of Christian music, and I pay much closer attention to the meaning of the words than I did before I came to Christ.
     Richard Adams / Hilliard, Ohio

One slight correction to Lynn’s column: Her teenage friend was swooning over the wrong Beatle. George Harrison wrote and sang “Here Comes the Sun.” Paul was admittedly better-­looking, however.
     Bob Harryman / Watertown, N.Y.

A light in a dark region

Bravo! Andrée Seu Peterson’s short column provides 13 prima facie proofs that Israel has primacy in sovereign ownership of the land. It is sobering that anyone, when presented with these facts, would remain a supporter of barbarians over a well-­ordered people and nation.
     Ben Rasnick / Ventura, Calif.

Andrée’s one-sided pro-­Israel propaganda ignores most of the facts surrounding the current conflict between the Israelis and the—as she says—“Palestinians.” God’s promises were made to a faithful covenant people, and it is difficult to understand how those promises continue through a secular state with such ­little regard for the welfare of the dispossessed Arab Christians and Muslims among them.
     Richard Downey / Spring Lake, Mich.

Every reason Andrée gives for Israel’s statehood is spot on. Anyone who reads and understands their Bible will see that God promised Israel the land, and He always keeps His promises.
     Marjorie Zimmerman / New Holland, Pa.

Failure to make the case

Reading Daniel Suhr’s review of Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism made me wonder if we had read the same book. I’m afraid Suhr’s position on the political right has clouded his ability to accurately assess the non-anecdotal evidence Alberta presents.
     Bob Baima / Dunwoody, Ga.

Correction

Actor Treat Williams’ film career spanned nearly half a century (“2023 Departures,” Jan. 13, p. 103).