DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709190141

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Issues of Faith 

SOURCE: Betsy Wright 

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

READERS' VIEWS ON THE ROLE OF MYTH IN FAITH

Last Week's Issue of Faith: Modern myths and the myths of our faiths.

This Week's Reader Response:

From Shirley Burton of Chesapeake: ``The Bible is not a fairy tale and it is not fiction. It is the bona fide word of God. I cannot imagine how you can say some is fact and some is fiction. It's just beyond my thinking.

``I really will pray that God will speak to your heart. The Bible is fact. Nothing else. Nothing more. Fact.''

From Pat Stultz of Norfolk: ``Your column Saturday presents a very powerful explanation and definition of spiritual maturity: recognizing as you said, `that belief is a gift of faith.' We can move beyond extremism. We can enjoy how very alike we are and how we really want to care about each other, but only if we resist claiming ours as the only answer.

``Expecting a perfect history of science from the Bible is like expecting a 3-month-old to do equations after a one-minute algebra lesson. Biblical texts were recorded by imperfect people and we read them as imperfect people; however, the `perfect teller' is not diminished because we 3-month-olds can't comprehend. . . . (The column) helped me address my own arrogance and say to myself, `Hey, God is still in control. It's his perfect telling of his will that will be done.' ''

From Brian Panther of Virginia Beach: ``Baha'u'llah also says that we are put here to serve God. So when I sometimes become troubled and ask, `why am I here?', `why have I been placed on this planet?', the answer is clear.

``The purpose of being on this planet is to serve God. God has commanded me to promote unity among his servants. This includes the followers of all of his religions.''

From Tom Salzmann of Chesapeake: ``Your heretic ways in the newspaper are sad and an enemy to the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is also sad is the thought that there may actually be people who read your column for sound advice. The scripture clearly refutes what you say about Scripture. Please read your Bible and learn what Scripture says about itself. . . . The Bible is God's word! It's not the fiction of ancient man! . . . I would ask you to cease in your blasphemous teaching immediately! . . . I hope and pray that your readers search the Scriptures daily, also, so they can see clearly that what you write is not so.''

From Kay Wisenbaker of Chesapeake: ``If, as you say, you have no problem with the whole Jesus-as-Christ thing, isn't it possible that he could have guarded the words written about him in the Bible, keeping them honest and true? After all, you and I believe he is God and thus capable of all those godly powers. Jesus is not a religious leader if he was and is God; therefore, he cannot be compared to Moses, Buddha or Mohammed.''

From Thomas Roper of Virginia Beach: ``How better to understand the Bible as a mixture of the divine and the human. Spirituality ideally knows no barrier between what we learn from every other experience, and from religion's teachings. We all filter the Bible through the knowledge given us through the study of the Scripture's time, to whom it is addressed, the nuances of the ancient languages and, indeed, `how does God want us to understand what he/she is saying?'

``If, indeed, `The Bible says what it means and means what it says,' why then have a preacher interpret and `preach' a sermon?

``Ought we not best to understand that God has given us a world beset by problems and that our job as Jews, Christians, Muslims, etc. is to search the Scriptures to find his/her way of tikkun olam, or `repairing the world.'?'' MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her

opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,

921 N. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake, VA 23320; call 446-2273; FAX (804)

436-2798; or send computer message via bmw(AT)pilotonline.com. Deadline

is Tuesday prior to publication. You must include your name, city and

telephone number.

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