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Opinions of Hie Daily Tar Heel are expressed on its editorial page.
All unsigned cditorfcb are the opinions of the editor and the staff.
Utters and columns represent only the opinions of the individual
contributors.
Saturday, March 20, 1971
Tom Gooding, Editor
week
aire
01
IL
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Lizard of the week (animal
division)-The iguana that the New
University Conference put in the
Pit Monday. It was a good iguana,
but not a great one.
Mysterious note leaver of the
week-Former Daily Tar Heel
editor Wayne Hinder who has
developed a habit of wandering
through the office when there's no
one in and leaving notes saying, "I
was here. Where were you?"
What we want to know is
"Where the heck is Hurder?"
The "Thank God it's finally
over" award of the week To March
16 which meant that this year's
all-campus elections were ended,
that the - candidates got to be
regular people again and that the
students didn't have to hear
anymore "Hi. I'm Joe Blow and I'm
running for . . . "
The unwanted alumnus of the
week Sports Illustrated staffer and
former DTH sports editor Sandy
Tread well who went into the
Journalism School Friday to write
his story on the Eastern Regionals
for SI only to be told he had to
leave because the building was
closing.
Ad campaign of the week To
the national Mental Health
Association which sends out an
anti-drug abuse campaign for papers
to use as public service messages.
The campaign includes ads" saying,
"Have you counted your diet pills
laterly?" "If you think 'hash' is
corned beef and potatoes fried, in a
skilieii you're in trouble.'' and "If
your child has been buying a lot of
model airplane glue lately, ask to
see the airplane."
79 Years of Editorial Freedom
Tom Gooding, Editor
Rod Waldorf ....... Managing Ed.
MikeParnell News Editor
Rick Gray ......... Associate Ed.
Chris Cobbs Sports Editor
Frank Parrish ..... Feature Editor
Ken Ripley . J . . National News Ed.
John Geliman . . .... Photo Editor
Terry Cheek . . . . . . . .N$ht Editor
Robert Wilson ..... Business Mgr.
Janet Bernstein . ...... . Adv. Mgr.
Ken Ripley
ouil food.
What do you do with a book that
millions of . people over the last two
thousand years have called the "Word of
God" and others have called another
religious waste of time?
We can do several things. Some accept
the Bible blindly on faith, heatedly
defending the Bible against the "assaults"
of different interpretations, science, and
Biblical criticism.
Others, equally fervant, have jumped
on the bandwagon of human "reason,"
scorning the Bible as a pietistic fable. Still
others, tired of the whole theological
mess, ignore the controversial book.
In short, despite two thousand years
of Christianity, the various bizarre ways
people react to the Bible show we really
don't yet know what to do with it.
Last week I said that religious belief
and faith, like any other belief and faith,
cannot effectively exist in a vacuum of
knowledge. Because we are forced, sooner
or later, to confront the claims of religion
With its demand for intelligent decision
The "If Johnny Can't
Read ..." award of the week To
the 600 students who voted in the
elections Tuesday, but failed to
read the instructions on the
computer ballots and marked them
instead of punching out the holes,
The "Drinking is okay, as long as
it's illegal" award of the week-To
the N.C. General Assembly which
once again has given in to the
Baptists and bootleggers and
defeated liquor by the drink.
Political Campaign poster of the
week To the one that came out
Sunday night with a picture of a
semi-hude female on it. The
working was, "Score with " The
guilty party wins a whooping 21
per cent of Tuesday's vote.
The "bad taste is better than no
taste" award of the week To the
aforementioned poster.
Winner of the week-To Election
Board Chairman David Ruffin who
managed to get out of last
Tuesday's elections without ? one
all-campus runoff.
HUNSSR? WHERE?!
3 jj y ' . l
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itlke
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and commitment, we've got to look long
and hard at what the different religions
say-not just at what we think they say.
We cant just react to our particular
beliefs about Christianity, building up
religious strawmen to knock down.
Intellectual honesty and the seriousness
of religious claims, forct the real "seeker
after truth" to examine carefully the
Christian beliefs themselves.
Christian apologist Clark Pinnock has
rightly pointed out, 'The heart cannot
delight in what the mind rejects as false."
But the "heart" of man doesn't stand a
chance at all if a closed mind refuses to
grapple with religious claims. To reject
Christianity off-hand without even
examining it, as I have said before, is
intellectual if not moral cowardice.
But if we're going to look at
Christianity, we have to look at the Bible,
which Christians accept as the primary
source document of Christian belief.
It isn't hard to see why the Bible is so
important to Christianity. The endless
Letters to the editor
Bog
To the Editor:
I am a senior chemistry student living
in Granville Towers South. There are
times when I wished I majored not in
Chemistry but in Journalism or English so
that I might express my thoughts and
experiences better. This is one of those
times.
Last night, I walked my fiance home
to Granville East. In the lobby was a dog
argument about whether the Bible is
"inspired" is a matter for theological
debate and personal conviction. What
makes the Bible so essential to
Christianity is that, regardless of its
inspiration, it remains virtually the only
information we have or can agree
upon of what Jesus was like as a person,
what he said, and what he and his
apostles believed and did. Historians are
forced to the Bible for their studies of
Jesus and early Christianity. No less
forced are we.
But how we look at, or interpret, the
Bible is all-important, because so much of
what we get out of the Bible depends on
our assumptions we begin with.
One way, of course, is to read the
Bible only as a good story. But if the
Bible is a good story, such an approach
comes nowhere near the critical
examination of Christianity we need.
Another way is to take the Bible
symbolically, treating it as a collection of
myths and fables pointing to some
s
ujr rq r rt
craeljty opsetts
looking like -and about the size of a
German Sheppard. I am quite fond of
dogs, so I naturally stopped to pet it.
That is when the nightguard behind the
desk noticed the dog and said, "that dog
ain't stayin' here." He then reached down
and grabbed the dog by the loose skin on
the side of its head (around the jaw
region), pulled it toward the door, lifted
it off the ground and kicked it out the
door! All the time the dog was "yelling"
from the pain!
That was my experience, now my
thoughts are quite obvious. First, the dog
was quite friendly and would have been
easily led out the door. Second, this
guard apparently has no concern for
animal life; and because of this, I do not
want to see the money of students
supporting this type of person in a job on
this or any campus.
" Fll be the first to agree that the dog
should not have been there, but IH never
agree that the guard's method is justified.
I, personally, do Hot want any of my
money supporting this "man" (I must use
quotes around man, because I don't think
his actions justify that title.) nor do I
think any other person would condone
this.
I was not the only witness. As I said
before, my fiance was with me, and was
visibly shaking from the experience.
Other students were there, and they, too,
were ostensibly appalled by his cruel and
inhumans actions.
I know what I would liek to see done
to this guard, and I would encourage any
person to apply pressure on Granville
Towers to remove this guard from his
position.
1 Steve Hemmig
2629 S. Granville
Rococo bum-out
called impossible
To the Editor:
This letter is in reply to the front page
? blast about Rococo weed and the
: supposed "bad trip" that was experienced
by the smoker. There is no way possible
that one can bum-out on Rococo. I have
.been smoking Rococo with the founders
of this incredible weed for about five
weeks now and have not even had as
much as a slight queeziness, even after
smoking Rococo on all-night binges.
(Which I must say are extremely
exhilirating). I did have a bad trip once,
but that happened because I was so
be
it
fhigher truth." But while there is
profound symbolism in the Bible, to treat
the whole book as merely symbolic is to
ignore the increasingly legitimate
historical claims of the Bible as well as
the historical assumptions of the early
Christian church. If Jesus Christ is merely
a legend and did not do or say what the
Bible claims he did, Christianity as a
religion is worthless.
Even worse, to interpret the Bible
completely as symbolism is to open the
door to making Christianity whatever we
want-not what Christianity, in fact, is.
Christian history is full of cases where
Christian 'truth" was twisted to fit
human ambitions.
The best way to interpret the Bible is
to take it literally. A literal
interpretation, in the way I mean it, does
not mean to take the whole book blindly
at face value as some Christians
unfortunately do. Nor does it mean to
argue over whether or not a comma has
been left out, or which version is correct.
ZL
5-ZO-71
Granville
stoned I couldn't tell at which end of my
body my feet were, and fell over my St.
Bernard which I thought was a giant
pillow. I used to visit a friend who lived
on a farm in Tennessee and he turned me
on once with Jimson weed. I got quite ill
for many hours and I very well remember
what Jimson weed looked and smelled
like, and I can assure you that the person
who bummed-out could not have smoked
Rococo weed. There have been several
uncouth freaks capitalizing on the
Rococo weed name, and it is probably
these , people who have been passing
around some other kind plant as Rococo.
Rococo weed has not yet been released in
large quantities, but as soon as it is,
people will know-and everyone will be
able to see for themselves what an
incredible highness it will attain.
John Craddock
Subtle dog control
urged by non- lover
To the Editor:
I am a member of the scorned ranks of
non-lovers of dogs, (along with Mr.
Stevens and the late W. C. Fields),
however, I find it difficult to advocate
shooting dogs' heads off because their
habits include defecating in my yard,
going through my trash cans, attacking
me on my bicycle or barking day and
night.
I'm lucky, in a way, because I know
who most of my canine neighbors belong
to. This knowledge gives me a different
course of action from -Mr. Stevens'
suggestion of annihilation.
Whether it is the beagle who sings me
to sleep every night from his home on
Glendale Lane or the German Shepards
who give impromptu concerts from then
home on Glenhill, I can always sign a
warrant against their owners with the
Chapel Hill police department, which I
will do if too few of them read this letter.
Peter Deane
211 Glenhill Lane
Mr. Nixon taking
most realistic path
To the Editor:
Mr. Bello's last article seems to be an
attempt to convince the so-called "Silent
Majority" that the core of their group is
against Nixon and the United States
token fie alt
Instead, a literal interpretation of the
Bible'means to take the Bible in the ways
it was meant to be taken part history,
part poetry, part teaching, part symbolic.
A literal interpretation also means that
we refuse to accept the Bible for what it
is not a science or history textbook
rather than as a record of a God active in
history, science, and the lives of men.
The biggest demand of a literal
interpretation is that we take the Bible in
context and on its own termsjudging
what it means versus what we want it to
mean. Here Biblical criticism has played a
useful role.
Contrary to popular assumption, the
hundreds of years of biblical criticism do
not wage war against a literal view of the
Bible. The soundest studies of the Bible,
some of which are critical of traditional
Christian beliefs, are based on a literal
approach to the Bible. Much of what we
have thus learned about the Bible what
it means, what its authors intended has
m
o 11
.H-
.IHllL
iresno
involvement in Southeast Asia. No one
has ever doubted that there are members
of the "over-thirty generation" that are
totally opposed to our involvement.
Surely the group that was present at this
particular gathering cannot be thought of
as a representative group. I imagine the
people who heard Mr. Schoenbrun knew
his views before they came and those who
disagree with him showed less interest in
attending.
The fact that Mr. Schoenbrun was a
dynamic speaker is admirable, but there
have been many others before him who
have had this trait. Adolph Hitler and
George Wallace are both recognized as
great speakers, yet their final success was
limited. It is not difficult to "tear to
shreds" another stand when there is no
one to retaliate from the other viewpoint.
Mr. Nixon is surely aware of the
feelings of the American people, and he is
taking the most realistic path towards
peace.
James Stewart
03 Avery
t
Owners should get
complaints on dogs
To the Editor:
"I've seen dogs beaten, shot at, and
run over by speeding cars. The next
human who mistreats a dog is going to get
a bullet in his head."
That was my first reaction to Reed
Stevens' letter to the Tar Heel, before I
realized that I was stooping to his level.
Shooting dogs or people is unlawful. If I
am to fight people who are cruel to
animals, I must seek court action against
these people.
Stevens has a legitimate gripe if the
dogs tear up his yard and chase his car.
The complaint, however, should not be
directed at the dogs Attack the people
who are supposed to be responsible for
the dogs. I detest these people for
allowing their dogs to eat out of nasty
trash cans and to roam the streets
unprotected from speeders and
dog-haters. I detest them for my reasons
as much as Stevens does for his reasons.
If Stevens is still plagued by
destructive dogs, let him talk to the
owners in an effort to solve the dog
problem, before he ends up in court for
shooting a dog. Better yet, Stevens should
move to Carrboro, where the leash laws
are enforced.
Ron Moos
119 Pine St.
coraexiL
contributed greatly to our understanding
of Christianity.
To say, however, that Biblical criticism
has "disproved" the Bible and
Christianity is naive. Biblical criticism by
scholars has gone through so many
evolutions of thought from the early
rational to modern existential
viewpoints-the Bible still remains as
controversial and as open to study af
ever. Significantly, the Bible has generally
withstood well the close scrutiny ol
critics. It has been rejected and
reinterpreted, but has yet to bt
conclusively refuted.
What remains for the real "seeker," i
essentially the same as it has alway?
been-to into the controversy, to look a'
the Bible literally and honestly, and tc
arrive at some intelligent conclusior
about the worth and validity of th
Christian message.
And such a search means work anc
hard thinking, not an intellectual cop-out