Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor may not reflect the views or opinions of the Witness. Letters may be mailed, faxed or submitted using our online form. Only letters marked clearly for publication, signed with address will be considered for use. Letters are subject to editing. Please limit letters to 250 words.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

No French at FLVS

As an associate pastor and high school principal in Orlando I read your weekly publication regularly. I especially agreed with the Feb. 23 article about practical helps for starting Christian schools. However some of your information is wrong. I am quite familiar with the Florida Virtual School (www.FLVS.net), as many of my students take courses with them. While they are able to take Latin and Spanish, there is no course offering in French, contrary to what the conference speaker suggested in your report.

Bob Buris Orlando

STEM CELL DONATIONS

Ethical donations

We just received the February 2 issue of the Florida Baptist Witness. I think your publication is so educational and I, not living in Florida, can still read information that pertains to me as a Christian. Thank you for the quality content you publish. I was reading through your editorial on the stem cell debate that is coming to Florida and I have recently read other articles about stem cell research. I have been a bit puzzled by Christians when it comes to this aspect of stem cell research. We are right in standing against anything that involves harming or killing a fetus but we don’t try to educate others that there is an alternative out there, donating cord blood. Cord blood is found in the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born. Instead of throwing this away, which is typically done, you can donate the blood for stem cell research or it can be used for bone marrow transplants. When I had my son 2 1/2 years ago, the doctor gave me a pamphlet about this, but if I wanted to do it I would have to initiate it. All I had to do was make a phone call to say yes, they sent me a medical history form to fill out and then I had to give a sample of blood. It was all pain free and cost me nothing. In Tennessee there are no hospitals that do cord blood donations, but CryoBanks (http://cryo-intl.com) in Altamonte Springs, will take cord blood donations from anywhere in the country.

Sarah Ellsworth Jackson, Tenn.

CHURCH MUSIC

Worship from the heart

I am deeply disappointed in Mr. Colson’s Feb. 16 article about his feelings about contemporary music. There is already too much controversy concerning the differing viewpoints about music in church, and to give such a negative viewpoint can only cause further harm. Too many older people in almost every church have a negative opinion about praise and worship music, and Mr. Colson’s article was just like pouring gasoline on an already burning fire. Now, too many will say, See, he agrees with me, so it has to be bad music. To have put the article in the paper, which is an excellent source of Christian news, is not serving the whole church in what I consider to be the best way possible. There are many good, hard working music ministers who will suffer a great deal of abuse from some in their congregations because of the article. By the way, I am one of those “older people” in the church. I happen to believe that worship is as much from the heart as from the music we sing. Please be careful about what you print. I don’t want to have to defend my music minister against some who don’t like some of our music.

James Parks Lake City

ABORTION

See John the Baptist

This is in response to D. W. Donaldson’s letter to the editor “When is there a soul?” concerning abortion (Jan. 26). He asks “When does a body receive a soul” then states “when God breathes in the breath of soul-life at birth” and concludes “you can’t murder a biological body without a soul”. Combining soul and life as one is the mistake. God gave the “breath of life” to all creatures. Gen. 7:21-22 “both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing”, “and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life”. As to a soul, three months before John the Baptist was born, Luke 1:15 says “he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.” The word “he” does not refer to a body without a soul but to a person. Luke 1:44 says “as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” In Mark 12:26 Jesus quotes God saying “I am the God of Abraham” as proof that he is still alive (his soul lives on). In the same way Luke 1:15 proves that “he” is a living soul. He is not a (air) breathing body, no Breath of Life yet, but he is a living soul. In the words of Jesus, Mark 12:27, “ye therefore do greatly err.”

Allan Cornelius Holt

‘I knew you’

I applaud the writer from Ocala (Jan. 26) who opposes abortion, but greatly differ on his theology of when a soul is present. If we go by his statement, Jesus had no soul until birth and I believe there are many who will disagree with that. Yet with all the Scripture he quoted he left out a very important verse: Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...” This right here is a declaration from God that there is a soul before birth. God doesn’t know a “biological” body. He knows who we are: our very soul, before we even draw our first breath.

Charlie Naffziger Fort Worth, Texas