Letters to the editor, 07/24/06
Share with others:
Outside forces have prompted many church battles
There is another important factor contributing to the decline of mainline denominations described in the article "Mainline Denominations Losing Impact on Nation" (July 17).
Determined forces on the right, forces more secular than religious, have for years been working to undermine the social witness of mainline churches.
Most involved in this program is the Institute on Religion and Democracy, an advocacy group formed by Reagan-era ideologues and financed by wealthy entrepreneurs. Its strategy is to get Christian churches to fight internal battles over whether they should address contemporary social problems with an informed Christian understanding or whether they should stand firm against modernism by putting on the mantle of what passed for a liberal perspective two millennia in the past.
This has both diverted churches from standing for justice and mercy in the modern age and caused members to leave for the simple reason that most people do not go to church to fight.
Unless some people in the mainline churches stand up and fight against the reactionary designs of the rich and powerful, however, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians will become casualties of the same movement that threatens to divide this country into the poor and the super-rich.
LIONEL DEIMEL
Mt. Lebanon
The writer is a board member and past president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh.
Traffic snarls
Kudos to all involved in Eastside and in East Liberty's revitalization. However, someone needs to get over there and synchronize the traffic signals so it doesn't take three or four light changes to turn left onto Centre Avenue coming from Baum Boulevard.
It was bad enough when Whole Foods became the new guy on the block. Since Walgreens and Starbucks have opened, the problem has gotten much worse. Just have a look for a few days during afternoon rush hour and see the cars lined up back to Negley Avenue and beyond.
Making traffic bi-directional on Centre Avenue so Whole Foods shoppers could get there more easily from surrounding neighborhoods may have made sense initially but doesn't seem to be a good long-term decision, since everyone on the planet knows that the store is there. Now that further development has occurred on the site, maybe there is a way for traffic to enter the complex directly from Highland Avenue so the valued Shadyside, Point Breeze and Squirrel Hill customers can get to Whole Foods from every direction.
We won't be shopping there again until something is done to improve the congestion and traffic flow. Maybe a few staff from the city can be diverted from the feel-good juggernaut, the "Redd Up" campaign, long enough to address this problem.
HAROLD LOVE
Highland Park
Help for smokers
While the debate continues over issues related to banning smoking in public places, we need to focus on one issue central to that debate -- tobacco use. Debating an issue is a healthy exercise in our legislative process. Tobacco use is not.
Tobacco-related diseases are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Nicotine is an incredibly addictive drug, and smokers who wish to quit often need help to conquer that addiction. As part of a statewide network of programs, Tobacco Free Allegheny supports services throughout the county that provide one-on-one counseling, group programs and other supportive services for smokers who want to quit. Through funding from the state Department of Health, those who enroll in our programs have access to nicotine replacement therapy in addition to counseling.
Tobacco Free Allegheny aspires to help all smokers in our county stop using tobacco and lead healthy lives. If that goal is ever achieved, there would be little cause for organizations like ours or the need for public debate on issues related to smoking in public places.
CINDY THOMAS
Executive Director
Tobacco Free Allegheny
North Side
Third World service
How many hours do you spend trying to correct other people's mistakes or omissions? How many hours do you spend holding on the phone for someone to help you? How many letters from service providers do you receive that you don't understand? How many times have you been lost in a Web site trying to get information?
I'm retired, but if I were still working, I would probably be wasting much of my employer's time trying to deal with such incompetencies during "normal work hours."
Recently, I was on the phone with a post office holding for 30 minutes waiting for the one person who could help me correct a problem with a forwarding address. When she got on the line, she told me she had been out to lunch while I was holding.
I was promised a certificate that I need for insurance purposes from a company more than a week ago.
I waited for the cable guy three times trying to get the "free HBO" I was offered.
Well, I still have mail problems, do not have the certificate and have no HBO. I gave up on that.
This is the kind of service you would expect in an underdeveloped country not a "highly developed world leader." What's the answer? How do we get overworked and unmotivated people to focus on the customer, do the job right the first time and communicate clearly? Time is not a renewable resource. Once it is gone, it is gone.
MARY LOU BURGER
Washington, Pa.
Look at attendees
A wise statistician once said, "Most people use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support than enlightenment." Let me shed some light on some statistics cited in the July 12 article "Nine Episcopal Parishes Don't Want New Province."
The article states these nine parishes' "membership is nearly 2,700, about 13 percent of the diocese's total membership of 20,263."
Membership in Episcopal churches is often a rather phantom figure. Church statisticians suggest a more accurate gauge is the actual people who occupy pews on Sunday morning or Average Sunday Attendance (ASA).
Examining the ASA figures in the 2005 Pittsburgh Diocesan Convention Journal for the nine churches that issued the press statement mentioned in the article finds only two, Calvary and St. Brendan's, have average attendance over 100 (378 and 103, respectively).
If you use the rule of thumb that a parish needs an average attendance of 100 to be viable it means there are only two viable parishes involved and one of those barely. (Four of them have average attendance under 50). The average of the averages is 83.
If the averages are added the total is 751 or 9 percent of the total ASA for the diocese of 7,964. And if one were to project (and with some degree of accuracy) that perhaps 35 percent of those 751 attendees might support the position taken by the Standing Committee and Bishop Robert W. Duncan that number shrinks to 498 or 6.25 percent of those who regularly attend Episcopal churches each Sunday. Hardly a powerhouse number.
REV. DAVID D. WILSON
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Kittanning
Senate candidates failed to address major issues for the military locally
Thank you for covering our Pennsylvania American Legion meeting ("Casey, Santorum Duel on Support of Veterans," July 15).
While both candidates for Senate gave rousing campaign speeches at the meeting, neither spoke to the two major issues facing our military community in southwestern Pennsylvania: the relocation of the Charles E. Kelly Support Facility commissary to Moon and the establishment of a Regional Joint Readiness Center at the 911th Airlift Wing.
Candidate Santorum stated in his speech, "When a veteran walks in with a problem, you solve the problem. You go to work." Yet when I asked him face to face about the relocation of the commissary all he could say to me was, "I'm trying ... sorry."
I for one am waiting for the candidate who will step up, solve the problem and relocate the commissary before its closure in August 2007.
There are more than 168,000 people in the military community who live within 100 miles of Oakdale who are entitled to use the commissary. They are waiting for that candidate, too.
WILLIAM SARGENT
Rosslyn Farms
The writer is a member of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Job Retention and Military Presence.
First Published July 24, 2006 12:00 am
