God uses some people; others just use God

I have found the back-and-forth debate about whether Jesus would be considered a liberal or a conservative very interesting. It illustrates an age-old problem - people reading their own meanings into the Bible to support only the things what they want to find, ignoring the rest. God doesn't use them, they use God.

For example, the writer of the November 5 letter “Politics should have nothing to do with Bible,” manages to be very political. He said, “My Bible describes Jesus as believing that a fetus is a person.” Really? The words fetus, abortion, pro-life and pro-choice aren't found at all in the Bible. (Maybe the rewritten conservatives Bible will correct that.)

The writer also wrote that Jesus believes “marriage is between a man and a woman.” Again, Jesus said no such thing, it's an assumption. Adam and Eve were an opposite-sex couple, but does that mean God feels gay couples should be denied civil marriage in Iowa? That's an interpretation people can disagree about.

I find the happy “love thy neighbor, judge not, live and let live” Christians to be very pleasant. I have found the hellfire-and-brimstone type of so-called “Christian” - the kind who tells everyone else how to live - very annoying. Not only do they drive others away from their religion with that attitude, they typically don't live up to their own proclaimed standards themselves.

Jerry Woodens

Cedar Rapids