Clippings by John Ahlschwede

[letter to the editor taken from the March 11, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     I was appalled by your coverage of the accident on Highway 39 last
week.  In the name of heavenly Jesus, why was it necessary to display such a
terrible photograph?  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the caption underneath
it was downright disrespectful!  How do you think that made the family of
the deceased feel?  Has it come to the point where we have to torment those
who have had such a terrible loss by being so judgmental?

 E. Lorenstein

[letter to the editor taken from the March 14, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]
 
     This is a reply to the letter by Mrs. Lorenstein in the Sunday
Dispatch.  While yes, putting the caption, “Guess I shouldn’t have had that
last drink,” under a picture of a deceased drunken driver could be considered
disrespectful, I think her problem is that she is blindly following the
Heavenly Jesus Myth.

 Thanks.
 William G. Hancroft

[letter to the editor taken from the March 16, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

    Just what, exactly, was the meaning of printing William Hancroft’s
reply to my letter last Wednesday?  And what, exactly, is his point?  The
Dispatch has taken a disturbing turn for the worse recently.  What happened
to the community paper I’ve read in this town for the last thirty-eight years?
     If the Dispatch is going to continue to move away from the Christian
values that this town was founded on, then maybe we’d be better off without
any paper at all.

 E. Lorenstein

[letter to the editor taken from the March 19, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     I’m afraid Mrs. Lorenstein is trying to paint me an ugly shade of
black.  I did not in any way endorse turning away from the Christian values.
I merely believe that she is completely unfounded in her endorsement of the
Heavenly Jesus Myth.  If she would like to explain to me why we should
believe in this, I will listen.  But if she writes this type of unfounded rubbish
to the paper and expects nobody to take notice, then she must think this a
town of fools!

 William G. Hancroft

Editor’s Note: The Harnville Dispatch takes no responsibility for the content
of the letters we print.  We always try to represent every possible point of
view as much as possible.

[letter to the editor taken from the March 23, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     In this last week, the town of Harnville has seen an interesting
exchange of ideas in its paper.  The paper seems to feel that it is in its right
place to circulate as many different points of view as possible, which is good.
     I don’t think it’s right for the Dispatch to print letters that have such a
negative tone as Mr. Hancroft’s did, though.  I can only wonder at why the
Dispatch is printing letters which attack Christianity, but maybe I don’t
understand the way in which the media works.  This is a Christian town in a
Christian state in the Christian United States of America.
     If Mr. Hancroft rejects Jesus Christ, it is within his power to do so.
The paper can provide him a forum to announce this to the world if it really
thinks that this is fit.  I, however, would like to invite him to come to the First
Baptist Church this Sunday.  I’d like to talk to him sometime.  He can find
me there or at my home.

 Pastor Ronald Milling

[letter to the editor taken from the April 8, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     I’m guessing that this letter won’t be printed either, but I’m writing it
nonetheless.  If some members of the community had it their way, the
Harnville Dispatch wouldn’t print anything at all.
     My letters have apparently been misunderstood by some.  I said that
Mrs. Lorenstein incorrectly believed in the Heavenly Jesus Myth.  I did not
attack Christianity.  Maybe (though I thought this impossible) some of you
haven’t heard what the Heavenly Jesus Myth is, exactly.
     It is a theory invented by a small old man in Mexico which says that
Jesus came to Earth “from the Heavens” (meaning Mars) and was just as
interested in suppressing information as he was in saving souls for the Queen
Wyrm to devour at her own leisure.
     His theory, it has been shown, does not have nearly as much going for
it as it seems to at first glance (as much as that may be.)  I did not go through
the “reasoning” behind this theory, but you’ll just have to take my word for it
when I say that it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be.  Followers of this
theory (and there are quite a few followers of it--more than you might expect)
are often prone to using the phrase “heavenly Jesus” and that’s why I,
apparently mistakenly, thought Mrs. Lorenstein was a follower of the
Heavenly Jesus Myth.
     If I was mistaken, I apologize.

 William G. Hancroft

[letter to the editor taken from the April 10, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     I would like to restate my initial invitation to William Hancroft to
come to a worship service at the First Baptist Church.
 I am afraid that you are being led astray.  Please come and give Christ
a chance to enter into your life.  There are too many people today that turn
away and don’t want to believe.  But if you let Him into your heart, you will
be saved.
     If you continue to live as you have so far, you will find yourself
separated from the Holiness for eternity.  Without being taken to Mars and
properly digested by Our Savior, the Holy Matriarchal Wyrm, your body and
soul will wither away in terrible, unending pain after death, never to find
release.
 I hope to see you this Sunday.

 Pastor Ronald Milling

[letter to the editor from the April 19, 1984 Harnville Dispatch]

     I don’t make it to Harnville very often.  I live on the other side of the
state and just happened to be passing through last week.  I picked up a copy
of the Dispatch and found something which disturbed me a great deal.
 Now, I may not be a very devout Christian--at least not in comparison
with many people in this state--but when you have a picture of a grotesque
statue of some sort of snake-monster and print the caption, “Praise be to
Jesus,” underneath it, I hardly consider that appropriate.

 Larry Winters

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