Letter leads people away from truth
On May 24, Judith A. Cox wrote a guest column for the editorial page. She describes herself as “simply a 70-year-old lifetime Catholic.” Sounds like someone you can trust to explain what the Catholic Church really needs to be about, doesn’t she?
From Cox’s Judith’s prior letters to the editor, I know that she is against the all-male priesthood and has little regard for papal authority. With her latest letter, she clearly shows she is a dissenting activist who openly speaks out against teachings of the Catholic Church.
In her column, Judith Cox calls contraception an insight from God and in-vitro fertilization a special gift from God. Both contraception and in-vitro are grave, immoral acts because they separate the procreative act from the unitive act of marriage and can cause the death of a newly conceived human life.
Cox Judith states 99 percent of Catholic childbearing couples contracept. This statement is patently false. She says couples rightly use their consciences to decide to contracept and, out of context, quotes the Second Vatican Council to bolster her false belief that consensus decides morality. Cox Judith needs to contemplate this quote from Vatican II: “In forming their consciences the Christian faithful must give careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of truth.” (Decree on Religious Liberty).
Judith, in charity I say to you, you are leading people away from the truth of the Catholic Church. I will stand in defense of our faith, our church, and our Holy Father. I continue to pray for you regularly with the hope that you will return to full communion with the Catholic Church that Christ himself called you into.
Ann T. Gray
Taxing what hurts us
New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to ban super-sized sugary sodas has resurrected the age-old debate over the role of the state in protecting the public health.
In recent years, this debate involved bicycle helmets, car seatbelts, tobacco, trans fats, saturated fats in meat and dairy products, and sugar (or more aptly, high-fructose corn syrup). Public subsidies for tobacco, meat and dairy, and corn production added fuel to the debate.
I would argue that society has a right to regulate activities that impose a heavy burden on the public treasury. National medical costs of dealing with our obesity epidemic, associated with consumption of meat, dairy, and sugars, are estimated at $190 billion. Eliminating subsidies for these products, as well as judicious taxation to reduce their use and recoup public costs should be supported by health advocates and fiscal conservatives alike.
Benjamin Franklin said nothing is certain except death and taxes. Ironically, death can be deferred substantially by taxing products that make us sick.
Kimberly Teague
We’re not stupid
Does Sheriff Ken Fries, Police Chief Rusty York and Allen County council member Paul Moss think Fort Wayne residents are stupid?
They must to think the fairytale they’ve conjured up is believable. Sobriety tests aren’t known to be unreliable or they wouldn’t be using them when pulling people over suspected of drinking and driving. It’s obvious Moss feared the test results.
I find it hard to believe someone who had not had a drink for six hours would be driving so erratically the police needed to pull them over in a traffic stop. The best thing the police could have done was taken Moss downtown and the girls taken home. Instead, these three public servants and the police officer, paid by public tax dollars, covered up an incident of breaking the law.
If you cannot uphold the law without cronyism, you are not fit to hold office. I hope Prosecutor Karen Richards can do something about this. Any other average citizen would have been taken downtown.
Laura J. Smyser
