An Issue and An Oops!
Every GLEANER is a blessing ... we've been appreciative, avid readers of each issue since moving to the Northwest in 1979.
I hurt because you've been shamed, accused of "lack of judgment" and "sensationalizing" a story and for publishing news of a "WWVA Graduate Accepted into West Point" (Letters, January GLEANER). What better a place might a fine young Adventist be? Like Esther, it's quite possible he has been called to West Point for such a time as this!
Also, in the Oregon "Comings and Goings" insert for the months of December and January, David Schmidt is listed as Pastor of the Grand Ronde and Sheridan churches. With a smile on my face, I'll withhold my hurt feelings if in the February GLEANER, you will also list Pastor Schmidt as OUR PASTOR at River's Edge Company in McMinnville, Oregon, along with the other two — a responsibility of these three churches he's assumed for several months now.
Richard Williams, McMinnville, Oregon.
GLEANER responds: Our thanks to resolute readers like the Williams! The item about Pastor Schmidt was part of a separate insert within the GLEANER designed and provided by the Oregon Conference. We are certain they did not intend to slight the fine group at River's Edge.
Rude Remnant Take 3
I agree that Seventh-day Adventists can be blunt and rude (Let's Talk, December GLEANER). I have been on the receiving end of that many times. As I was thinking about this, the Lord reminded me that I haven't always handled situations tactfully, especially when dealing with school-age young people. How I wish I would learn to ask God for His response FIRST before I open my mouth.
Yvonne Tooley, Grants Pass, Oregon.
Showing Our True Colors
As you so poignantly wrote in your timely article (Let's Talk, January GLEANER), we have chosen to imitate the world so much that we have lost our edge. I even appreciate the Ellen White statement regarding breaking away "from the customs and bondage of society." Didn't our God expect His people to maintain a distinction from the world, not so they would be weird but so that they would point the way to Him who is the Truth?
Bruce Biggs, Caldwell, Idaho.
