Letters

JESUS AT 2000

"This lesson in do-it-yourself scripture writing could easily allow any of us to be a self-anointed Matthew, Mark, Luke or John." GEORGE A. THOMA SR. Lombard, Ill.

Reynolds Price offers a simple solution to the din of millennium madness: respond to the quiet voice of Jesus [RELIGION, Dec. 6]. Price eloquently rewrites the Gospel in words too plain to miss. His work shows that an individual's honest approach will not be turned away. This is one of TIME's most powerful pieces. DENNIS MISNER Grants Pass, Ore.

You promised "A new gospel based on archaeology and the Bible," but Price's article was simply a trite amalgam of the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke). The historical Jesus deserves better than a narrative dressed up in cute, up-to-date literalism. No wonder the Jesus on the cover was shedding tears. Price's words reflected pious ignorance. (THE REV.) ERNEST W. COCKRELL St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Saratoga, Calif.

I read Price's work and was deeply moved. I wish to thank him for his uplifting, scholarly writing. PENNY SKOGLUND Sterling, Colo.

When the truth is not enough, give us fiction. Jesus got liposuction in Price's article, in which the author removed the "fat" of faith and offered a new Gospel for a new millennium. It appears that the man who as the Son of God declared "I am the Truth" has now become the son of fiction. CHARLES CRISMIER Richmond, Va.

Price's article about Jesus was forthright, honest and direct. As one who believes in what Jesus stands for, Price writes with the bluntness of a reporter and the honesty of a follower. I've read the Bible many times; Price's article touched me as deeply. It lifted me up. HELEN DRAB Pearland, Texas

What Price fails to mention in his intellectually self-indulgent piece is the amount of evil that people would have visited on the earth without a doctrine of divine love to temper their actions. Imperialism and enslavement predate Christianity. Evil men use the handiest reason to justify their evil deeds. It is a grim tribute to the success of Christianity that so many villains, as well as holy men, have used the name of Jesus as the rationale for their acts. What was Price's motivation for "updating" the Gospels? The word of God is not first and foremost an intellectual exercise. DAVID ADAMS Jarrettsville, Md.

Price's silly story about Jesus was just that, a story. What was "gospel" was Price's recounting of his inner vision and healing from cancer. This was powerful and poignant, as are all true insights about Jesus Christ. VIRGINIA LEE ADI Portola Valley, Calif.

Novelist Price obviously wants to believe in Jesus as the true Son of God--and he experienced a strong personal clue as evidence of that belief. But Price suffers from the modern malaise of skepticism, owing in large part to the unproved notion that the Gospels couldn't be actual history because they were composed many years after Jesus died. REMI G. DUBUQUE Southington, Conn.

One of the wonderful things about Jesus' message is that it has come through 20 centuries undiminished by the stupid, disgusting commentaries of countless morons like Price. ROBERT MCMAHON Ocean Township, N.J.

Price's article also failed to give me a clear idea of how having a "personal relationship" with a man who died almost 2,000 years ago is supposed to improve my moral character or fill some metaphysical void in my psyche. I lead a very happy existence without having to seek refuge from the world in the naive sanctity of ancient myths. ANDREW LEVINE Succasunna, N.J.

As a student of archaeology, the Bible and Jesus, and as a visitor of ancient biblical sites, I found Price's piece to be insightful and intriguing. Everything he wrote was consistent with my personal studies of Jesus' cultural surroundings. Price has captured the essence of who Jesus was and what that meant to his early followers and to us today. Thank you for publishing this testament. Now if we could only get the traditional church to take this kind of look at Jesus. NATHAN HART Holland, Mich.

It takes no great intellectual leap to recognize the effects of Jesus upon human history. Faith, however, is an experience in the soul shared by Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and millions of others but not, by his own admission, Reynolds Price. It is sad that Time would entrust such a project to one who is not able to grasp its essence, faith. BOB DUNN Topeka, Kans.

If Jesus is, as Price claimed, "the single most powerful figure--not merely in these two millenniums but in all human history," then a cover story devoted to him should document that power and influence. Instead we got Price's foolish, ill-conceived and insulting apocryphal "gospel." That Price should write a feature article on someone he doesn't know intimately is both poor journalism and poor Christianity. LLOYD D. OPPEL Comox, B.C.

It is most surprising that price completely ignored the writings of Flavius Josephus, which many scholars consider to be the only nonbiblical proof of the existence of Jesus Christ. KURT REDISCH Sao Paulo

If this piece is the best a great novelist can come up with, then the literary world is in serious trouble. ANTHONY YACKEL White Rock, B.C.

Granted, Price is a good storyteller, but Christianity would not be a living force and the comfort of millions on the strength of such a mishmash of "scholarly notions" as his. The only relevant question for the true seeker is, Is Jesus God or not? If he is God, and all believers accept this as fundamental to their faith, he demands their obedience, trust, honor, love and allegiance. STEPHEN AND INGE WICKS Somerset, England

Here is what happened to us in the past 2,000 years: we went from a theological, intellectual society to an empty but inventive pop-culture society, void of substance or validation. Your magazine should be displayed at the checkout counters a little closer to the other inventive publications like the National Enquirer. This was an all-time low for your publication. VERNON G. FINCH Surrey, B.C.

QUESTIONS OF FAITH

What would Jesus do? Is the voguish but rhetorical question everyone answers in the way his faith dictates. My guess is that Jesus would be horrified at having been promoted as a living God. RICHARD H. VELVART Toronto

One thing I've noticed about your recent articles on the "historical" Jesus: he sounds very modern. This last piece by Price was no exception, with its references to assisted suicide and pedophilia. What is strange to me is that a historical document has been rejected in favor of the views of one 20th century individual. We have seen what happens to those who try to rewrite history. People remember what truly took place, so why would the people of Jesus' day be any different? It doesn't matter what age you live in; the claims that Jesus rose from the dead are incredible. But could it be that the account is accurate? PHILLIP READ Sydney

I have never read such a bad account of Jesus' life as the blasphemous storytelling by Price. There are passages that do not correspond at all to the generally accepted versions of the New Testament. To suggest that we can learn more about the life of Jesus, based on historical evidence, by reading this apocryphal "gospel" seems an insult to any well-versed Christian with a hermeneutical background. Didn't Jesus warn us against false prophets? TONI BASILIO Filderstadt, Germany

END OF AN ERA

Political theologians are discussing the unconstitutional takeover of Pakistan's democratically elected government by General Pervez Musharraf [WORLD, Dec. 6], ending a checkered era of government rule plagued by graft, corruption and sectarian strife. The takeover cannot be condoned, but it must be admitted that the general saved Pakistan from impending social disorder. For democracy to sustain itself there must be a sound socioeconomic base and political leaders with an unblemished background. To expect a Western-style democracy in the region is naive. What is needed now is a restructuring of Pakistan's economy, which is a shambles. For a citizen who lacks the basic necessities of life, a super democracy is not the most desired thing. He naturally looks for other options, including a new political culture. CYRIL WICKREMANAYAKE Colombo, Sri Lanka

The past "democratically elected" governments in Pakistan did only one thing "for" the people, and that was loot them of their hard-earned money and spend it on themselves. Musharraf has finally stood up to save the nation from further misery. BASMA ABDI Karachi

WHO ARE THE REAL ARTISTS?

At last the one-sided concept of modern art has been breached, with news that an exhibit of Norman Rockwell's representational work [ART, Dec. 6] will appear at New York City's Guggenheim Museum, the stronghold of "nonobjective art." I suspect that for a short while we will experience some fireworks between the opposing sides of the contemporary art scene. I suggest that museums have two curators, each expressing one side of the polarized modern-art controversy. They could compete by means of the artworks each chooses and engage in lively debates. Only then will people have an opportunity to see the work of both contingents and decide which they prefer. MANI DELI Toronto

THE CHECHEN WAR CONTINUES

What is happening now in the breakaway republic of Chechnya [WORLD, Dec. 6] is similar to what happened in Waco, Texas, in 1993. In both cases a group of extremists was trying to undermine the authority of the established government. How can anyone condone the fbi's moves at Waco and at the same time condemn the actions of Russia in Chechnya? JOHN ZACHARIAS Scunthorpe, England

When will the U.S. finally realize that the billions of dollars it has given to help Russia's faltering economy have been spent on political corruption and on bombs and bullets for the Chechen war? George W. Bush and John McCain are right in suggesting that aid to Russia should cease if the war in Chechnya continues. The Russian presidential front runner, Vladimir Putin, has no tolerance for Western interference but apparently feels free to accept Western dollars, spending $115 million on Russia's military. How long will it be before the U.S. is once again facing a hostile enemy prepared to wage war against it with U.S.-financed weapons? ADAM HACKER Nepean, Ont.

The heavy bombing and blitzing of Chechnya are making it into another Kosovo. Man is stupid, isn't he? He never learns from past mistakes. It wasn't very long ago that the tragedy of Kosovo occurred or that the Bosnians were butchered. Russia must be stopped from killing innocent men, women and children. All people have a right to express themselves and to strive to gain their independence. Haven't the East Timorese made progress in obtaining their freedom? Why not force the Russians to give freedom to the Chechens? SUMAIRA DADA Karachi

CRACKDOWN IN SCHOOLS

John Cloud's article on the after-effects of the Columbine shooting and the prevalence of "zero-tolerance" policies for campus violence was one-sided [NATION, Dec. 6]. Cloud makes it seem as though schools are suspending kids left and right for minor infractions, like having blue-dyed hair. I am an 18-year-old student in my last semester of high school, and I'm not alone in thinking that getting tough with kids and having a zero-tolerance rule for weapons and violent behavior are absolutely right. Maybe the youngsters who were singled out had prior records of trouble at school. Booting students out of school and jailing them for a couple days doesn't solve anything in the long run. What about therapy and counseling for those who are teased and abused? Maybe someday we'll find a happy medium between abandonment and letting kids have free rein to do as they please. AVIVA WEST Windsor, Ont.

LESSONS FROM REVOLUTIONS

Re Paul Gray's review of historian Susan Dunn's Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light [BOOKS, Dec. 6]: as a Frenchman living in the U.S., I have had the opportunity to reflect on the respective merits and shortcomings of the two countries' revolutions. Dunn does not render sufficient justice to the particular challenges of the French Revolution. While the Reign of Terror was a sad phase in French history, it would probably have been difficult to avoid. The lessons drawn about the later emergence of Napoleon can also be considered from two perspectives: while some consider it an end point of the French Revolution, it can also be seen as a sign that the demons of absolutist power had roots deeper than a hundred-year-old colonial domination. ERIC SARRIOT Towson, Md.

The real difference between the French and American revolutions is that the U.S., a society on a continent whose indigenous inhabitants were militarily weak, could wreak violence at will on social and political outsiders, while the French were hemmed in by strong neighbors. Napoleon's sense of Manifest Destiny was no stronger than that of American leaders. It is a sad commentary on the persistence of racism even today that the execution of 17,000 French citizens is enough to brand the French revolutionaries as unacceptably radical, while here, the slaughter of untold thousands of slaves and American Indians seems to detract not a whit from the moral grandeur of the founding generations that participated in it. MARC DESMOND New York City

21ST CENTURY OBJECTIVES

I am glad to see that environmental awareness is a primary objective for the 21st century, as described in your issue Beyond 2000 [SPECIAL REPORT, Nov. 8], but simply making it a goal is not enough. Recycling has been in place for more than 10 years, and public apathy is repulsive. People have to realize there is no purpose in bettering mankind and themselves if there is nowhere to live. "If you don't have health, you don't have anything," they say, and yet not many see that the health of the planet is as important as personal well-being. The three Rs--reducing, reusing and recycling--should become a way of life. BEVERLY WONG Thornhill, Ont.

LEGACY FOR HILLSDALE

In the article about Dr. George C. Roche III, who just resigned as president of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich. [AMERICAN SCENE, Nov. 29], you said that Roche decided "14 years ago not to accept any federal funding or allow his students to accept federal loans." That is inaccurate. My father Dr. James Donald Phillips was the president of Hillsdale prior to Dr. Roche. When my father was president, he took a strong stand against the school's accepting federal aid. This occurred long before Dr. Roche took the helm of the school. MACWAIN PHILLIPS Emeryville, Calif.

WAR AGAINST DIRTY DIAMONDS

After reading your story about traders using diamonds to fund the civil war in Angola [WORLD, Dec. 6], we wish to restate the diamond industry's opposition to trade in illicit diamonds. We do not tolerate the violation of the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Our members will not stand idly by while criminals purchase illicit rough diamonds in disregard of international law. While only a very small percentage of the world's rough-diamond supply emanates from Angola, any breach of these principles is unacceptable. The diamond industry intends to send a clear message that humanitarian interests must be a priority. The end of continued conflict in Africa is a foremost objective of the diamond industry. JEFFREY FISCHER, PRESIDENT BEN KINZLER, GENERAL COUNSEL Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America New York City

WHAT'S HAIR GOT TO DO WITH IT?

In your report on the meeting between Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's wife, and Hillary Clinton [WORLD, Dec. 6], you referred to Suha's "bottle-blond tresses." I never knew that hair color was a quality that determined the competence of an individual. Perhaps to be fair minded you should also have commented on the tresses of Hillary Clinton; her hair today is virtually the same shade as Suha's. But Hillary has not been a natural blond since she was a child. Maybe the two women even use the same commercial shade! Let's forget the size, colors and looks of people and speak of their ability to do their job. SAHRA COXE Birmingham, Ala.

DEALING WITH CUBA

Thanks for the informative article about Cuba and the possibility of lifting the U.S. trade embargo [WORLD, Dec. 6]. It's high time the U.S. establish full diplomatic relations and free trade with that nation. Only by free and open communications, diplomacy and trade will we encourage Cuba to inch toward democracy. You can influence people more effectively when you're talking to them than when you're ignoring them. C.L. GUTHRIE JR. Spartanburg, S.C.

How much sense does it make to trade with China, the most communistic, militaristic and anti-human rights regime on the planet, and not to trade with Cuba, which poses absolutely no threat to our national security? The 37-year trade embargo against Castro's Cuba has not yielded any appreciable results and unequivocally should cease. GENE CARTON St. Louis, Mo.