JUDITH ROBINSON
Whanganui
Biblical genres
At last Mandy Donne-Lee and I are singing from the same songsheet. I fully agree with her that the key to understanding any part of the Bible is to know its genre, whether history, prophesy, creative expressions of love, poetry or song.
In our singing we use rhythm and pairs of rhyming lines, but Hebrew song used rhythm and pairs of parallel ideas, as in Psalm 5: "Listen to my words, Lord/consider my lament." We find similar rhythm and parallel pairs in Genesis 1; light/darkness, sky/water, land/seas, plants/trees etc, and even a refrain after each verse, "And evening passed and morning came."
The stories in Genesis about creation, Adam and Eve and the great flood all contain great truths, but are all similar in detail to the ancient mythical stories archaeologists found in 1849 in the Babylonian library at Nineveh (now Mosul in Iraq), indicating that the Hebrew stories were creative ones, developed by giving a monotheistic viewpoint to mythical Babylonian folk tales.
Certainly, the line about God creating a firmament over the world, like a giant Kelly Tarlton's plexiglass dome keeping the waters above from drowning us, was shown to be mythical the day the first high altitude rocket was fired into space.
JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune
Belief system
On the occasion of her father's birthday I lost the toss of the coin and was assigned putting to bed duties with hyper 6-year-old granddaughter. In lieu of bedtime stories we discuss God and science.
I started off by saying I had been looking for a "God" for 64 years, hadn't found it yet and was she having better luck than me in her time so far at St Mary's?
She informed me God was still invisible but conveniently lived behind the sun. I let the oxymoron pass and a made mental note to inform her of the laws of physics when she's a teenager.
I tried to explain the history of astronomy from Galileo to the present day, emphasising no sign of God has been discovered.
As I finished my eulogy I looked down to notice she was falling asleep. How humiliating - my belief system had no effect on her whatsoever. God was against me.
I did some thinking. She's confronted by images of torture on walls either side of the church she attends during school hours. In a prominent position is a man hanging on a cross obviously dead. Horrifying!
I will keep trying and hope future years are no longer wasted.
PAUL EVANS
Whanganui
Equality please
Re the Chronicle article - "Maori reoffending too high":
May I suggest a bit less kapa haka and something more suitable for future employment opportunities.
I am also becoming increasingly annoyed by the continual referring to those of us who are not Maori as "non-Maori". We are not non-Maori, nor are we non-people.
If I were to refer to Maori as "non-European", Maori would be the first to complain.
I suggest the media refer to those other than Maori - if there needs to be a distinction - as other New Zealanders. A more positive and equal reference I would think.
A BARRON
Aramoho
Why no info?
Thank you for publishing my letter, about the aborting of babies that may have Down syndrome in New Zealand.
When looking into this question I found it both interesting and frustrating that New Zealand stopped collecting the information in 1991. That is, up until 1991 it was reported and recorded that a baby had been killed in the womb because they were thought to have Down syndrome. Then they stopped.
Why?
All sorts of information is recorded about the babies aborted each year in New Zealand, yet not this any more. Could it be this information showed all too clearly an attempt to get rid of people with Down syndrome or other supposed handicaps?
Those with Down syndrome appear to be the greatest blessings of all, if only we could see it.
K A BENFELL
Gonville
