Letters: Earth needs Christian love

THE Christian people who have been writing letters to the Chronicle about abortion and euthanasia are to be commended for their love of human life. However, I would like to gently remind these good Christians that Christ told us to take the chunk of wood from our own eye before trying to remove the speck of dust from the eye of our brother.

We must remember God has made us responsible for the living world (Genesis 1:26), but the damage we are doing to it is killing far more of God's creatures, including humans, than abortion or euthanasia has ever killed.

Our ballooning world population and destructive consumer lifestyle have resulted in rapidly decreasing supplies of arable land, oxygenating forests, fresh water, and essential minerals. Population experts have warned that these trends will lead to the global collapse of our consumer economy in the 2030s, followed by the traumatic deaths of nine out of every 10 people by the 2050s. (tinyurl.com/tanuku).

The present focus is on greenhouse gases causing catastrophic climate change. To minimise the number of untimely deaths of our children, we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to about 7 billion tonnes a year, or one tonne per person.
New Zealanders are currently producing 17 tonnes per person, mostly from farm animals, travel, transport and home heating.

Instead of attacking caregivers who use euthanasia to give comfort to the dying or use abortion to keep existing children alive, it would be a lovely change if our armchair Christians wrote letters describing how they themselves have abandoned their Mammon-worshipping consumer lifestyle and reduced their production of greenhouse gases by changing to buses, bikes, a tiny home and homegrown vegetarian diet.

JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune

Hubristic Hosking

Praised by presidents and prime ministers worldwide; chosen by New York's Fortune magazine as the second greatest leader in the world; her portrait and her compassion recognised around the globe; complimented by the Dalai Lama; her face projected in admiration and gratitude on to the tallest building in the world, in Dubai, our Jacinda makes one proud to be a New Zealander.

And then damned with faint praise by that hubristic pipsqueak, Mike Hosking, in yesterday's Chronicle (April 26). What terrible sins are we being punished for to have him writing editorials in our paper?

I.D. FERGUSON
Whanganui

Anzac Day tribute

Were you there as Wanganui fell silent and, unheeding of risk, remembered Anzac Day with the reverence of the Dawn Parade and church services? Bright young faces replaced the ranks of our aged.

The speeches, the wreaths, the bagpipes, the roar of the flypast filled the warm air until the chill of The Last Post brought us back to the fearful impact of war.

This is not a day for reconciliation but a simple and respectful tribute to those who fell in battle in fateful defence of our country and our beliefs. We stand as Kiwis! As their sacrifice demands, we must never surrender. In the words of the Maori Battalion, "Kia kaha!"

KEN CRAFAR
Durie Hill

Birds are companions

Your front-page coverage on the removal of birds from the council flats or kicking the tenants out seems a bit over the top.

As I understand it, they are not allowed animal pets in those flats, which they agreed with, but now they are saying no bird pets as well.

I think that council needs to think hard about what they are there for and what the accommodation needs are of these people in them.

The thing is that birds are not pets or animals; they are companions and much needed by some residents.

MERV SMITH
Bulls

Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz