We’ve Got Mail
Letters From Our Readers
“Thank you for sending me Ministerial Ethics. It brought back happy memories of our conference with the chaplains. All of us in the Chaplain Service need to be your ‘students.'”
Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, Chief of Chaplains, USAF, Washington, DC.
“I got to this site as I was doing a search for a quote. I saw that the name was www.ChristianEthicsToday.com and I decided to look around, expecting closed-minded, dogmatic, bigoted teaching that would make me roll my eyes and say, “This is why I stopped going to church.” I just wanted you to know that I was relieved, and –I hate to say it-touched by this site. I’ve been trying to reconcile my logical thoughts with my Christian beliefs, and some of the things said here have helped me put into words what I been trying to say. So thank you!”
Sonya Sowerby, Vanderbilt University.
“I hear via the grapevine that you had a great time at McAfee School of Theology and that you really promoted the journal. Keep up the good work.”
Tony Campolo, Eastern College, St. Davids PA.
“I want our students to be engaged in careful thinking in the discipline of ethics. Many of our issues in Eastern Europe are very different from those faced in the USA. Your journal provides a model for careful thought based upon biblical and Christian truth. . . . I will copy articles for my classes; some I will translate into Croatian.”
Dr. Tom Sibley, Institute for Biblical Studies, Zagreb, Croatia. (We are sending our last set of CET to his school library, four textbooks, and future copies thru a USA friend.)
“CET is one of the few magazines that this 82 year old disenfranchised Southern Baptist can read without anger and skepticism.”
Earl Kelly, Executive Director Emeritus, MBCB, Jackson, MS
“Thank you for your visit-I enjoyed the fellowship and the students appreciated your dialogue also. May your ministry be blessed.”
Dr. Harvey Solganick, LeTourneau University, Longview, TX.
“Thank you for coming to Longview . . . I appreciate your commitment to equipping thousands of ministers in Christian ethics.”
Pastor Tim Watson, FBC, Longview, TX
“Enclosed find my check for [significant gift] in honor of the Lord and all my advocates in selling my house! Not only am I able to contribute this to all who write and publish the greatest Baptist publication in America, but I now have money for eye and teeth care!”
J. Lillian Brown, Austin, TX.
“You are doing a great job! You have my prayers and support.”
Buckner Fanning, San Antonio, TX
“I have so much love, respect and appreciation for Foy Valentine and I certainly want to encourage the continuation of the wonderful publication he started in 1995.”
Millard Fuller, Habitat for Humanity, Americus, GA.
“Dr. Maston would be proud of this great publication, and maybe he does have an insight into what’s going on here.”
Preston Taylor, Mirando City, TX.
“Thank you for the stimulating articles and your faithfulness to principles of religious liberty.”
Pastor Doyle Sager, FBC, Jefferson City, MO.
“Thanks for all you guys do. Foy was my pastor when I surrendered to preach-a truly great Christian leader.”
Price Mathieson, Abilene, TX.
“Thank you so much for the fine work you are doing as editor of this timely and needed journal [and for] Ministerial Ethics. Dr. Maston would be proud of you and James Carter.”
Barbara Chafin, Bellaire, TX.
“The Lord has guided me to [the Journal] and your books on ethics. Thank you for the blessings that God gives me through your teachings.”
Pastor Orlando Garzon-Mejia, San Diego, CA.
“CET is a marvelous Journal and it really lifts my spirits to know that there are some people who know what Christianity is all about. Especially that such people know how to apply Christianity to the human condition.”
Cliff Fields, Houston, TX.
“Thank you for including me among your readers. . . . Dr. Humphreys has been a good friend of mine for many years.”
N. S. Xavier, M.D., Birmingham, AL.
“I’ll tell friends about CET. If you want to send me a few copies, I will put them on our “Share A Book’ table at church. We need more Ethics in our SBC family.”
G. Avery Lee, Pastor Emeritus, St. Charles Ave. BC, New Orleans, LA.
“I do enjoy CET and appreciate what it and you mean to Baptist causes.”
Clyde Glazener (former third-baseman at OBU), Gambrell St. BC, Ft. Worth, TX.
“I and our Christian Life Committee appreciate your good work and enjoy your publication.”
Brenda Denton, FBC, Ashville, NC.
“I heard about your Journal through my ethics teacher, Dr. Jeph Holloway.”
David Calavan, East Texas Baptist University.
“For many years I have enjoyed (as a Roman Catholic) reading the varied articles in CET. My wife and I both appreciate the enlightenment.”
Capt. F. Winter Trapolin, USN (Ret.), New Orleans, LA.
“I admire the courage you’ve shown in your selection of articles, and your respectful responses to negative reactions. I’m still a little surprised when someone objects to your publication of differing viewpoints.”
John R. Scott, Dallas, TX.
NOTE: During the past year we have received about 10-12 letters of concern (a personal response was sent to each one) from readers who were upset over certain articles/poetry that seemed to them to be too political, too anti-war, or even anti-Bush. Most were too long for publication, but below is a summary of the questions and the responses of the editor:
“Thank you for your letter of concern. We are always interested in the responses of our readers. One purpose of the Journal is to encourage thought and intelligent discussion about issues, especially where there are honest differences of opinion. Let me respond:
To Tom: I have no idea of the political affiliation of our authors-I can guess that some are Republicans (like columnist Jeff Jacoby and John Hancock CEO D’Alessandro) and some Democrats (like former Clinton speechwriter Robert Maddox), but each is expressing not so much his politics, but his convictions on ethical questions. The point of Robert Maddox’ essay, it seems to me, is that no President, politician, or even a minister should claim Divine sanction for his decisions, as if he alone has the ear of God and he alone is doing the will of God.
To John: Sorry, but I did not title the article “To the President From a Father: Shame on Us”-authors title their essays. The D’Alessandro article to me is a “confession” that both this business leader and the President are spared the greatest agony of war-that of having children who serve in Iraq. Indeed, our Congress of over 500 members has only two or three with a child or grandchild in Iraq!
To Robert: Of course we do not endorse any candidate or party. However, our role is to address public policy issues such as the war, economics, gender issues, media honesty, church and state, and same-sex marriage-all of which were covered in the summer issue. Our goal on all issues is not to be balanced (as one for and one against same-sex marriage for example), but to publish articles that honestly and accurately address moral issues from a biblical and Christian ethical point of view.
To Everyone: Thanks for your letters-they encourage us and help us improve.
