Anybody who’s dressed is welcome in church

For the last six years, I have been the pastor of the Crescent Avenue United Methodist Church. Occasionally, I am confronted by people who are not active church-goers making gentle inquiries about “coming to church.”

Curiously, one of the questions I get asked a lot has to do with any dress code we might have that would make someone inappropriate to come worship at the church. I usually respond by saying, “Yes. You really should come dressed.” And they usually get my drift.

With that in mind, I was disheartened to read Dan Kramer’s July 23 letter regarding the “appalling” action of some people actually wearing shorts to church. Then, I read the response Jane Vorndran wrote (July 28) and that made me feel much better. I believe she nailed it when she wrote that Jesus never said anything about acceptable clothing to wear as we gather for worship in the presence of God. But rather, being clothed in “tolerance, patience, and love for one another” is the most appropriate garb.

To my way of thinking, I’m just glad that people are even interested in coming to church because a lot of the attendance statistics show a much different picture.

So wear what you want. Go where it feels comfortable to worship, be it in a church, synagogue, mosque, ashram or wherever. And if someone has a consideration about what you’re wearing, let them take it up with God because God’s the final arbiter in our behavior anyway.

JAMES M. EVANS, JR. Crescent Avenue United Methodist Church Fort Wayne

Closed doors make for poor decisions

The latest decision by Steve Shine to call another closed-door meeting makes me want to change my party affiliation. The voters want a government that is transparent. I realize that some meetings do not have to be open to the public, but why is it necessary unless there is something to hide?

The last closed-door meeting at Republican Headquarters that I attended was enough to end my active involvement with the party. In that meeting the decision to support Matt Kelty for mayor was determined to be the direction of the party.

Bad decisions occur behind closed doors. We need to have our debates, disagreements and decisions made out in the open in front of the public, where they can see what the issues are and make informed decisions about whom they want to support.

Everyone should have the right to voice their position without being called to the party chairman’s office to get in trouble for speaking out of turn.

Thanks to Commissioner Nelson Peters for clearly expressing his thoughts and for the attempt at transparency.

CHRIS DUNN Churubusco

Editor’s note: See related column on opposite page.

Bachmann panders over gas prices

So Michele Bachmann says that if she is elected president, she will drop the price of gasoline to $2 a gallon. She’s trying to buy our votes on stupid promises that she can’t keep. How stupid does Bachmann think we are?

GLENN KINDUELL Fort Wayne