Limits on St. Andrew’s need to be...

Limits on St. Andrew’s

need to be reasonable

St. Andrew’s Church was there before many of the residents bought

their homes. Also, the high school was there before most of them

bought their homes. They knew the neighborhood when they bought their

homes.

It seems strange to limit the occupancy to 1,500 or any number.

The church has a choir of 100, who sing at two services, so that

brings the number down to 1,300. There are at least 10 members of the

orchestra, who play at both services, so we are down to 1,280. This

is not including the minister, teachers and staff who are necessary

to run the church.

I can just imagine our ushers with adding machines, counting the

people as they enter the church. As soon as we meet the cutoff

numbers, they will have to close and lock the doors and turn people

away.

I always thought democracy meant freedom of religion. Guess I was

wrong.

Let’s be reasonable.

LOUISE COLLIER

Newport Beach

Bell misses

election meaning

I guess Joe Bell just doesn’t get it. The election was not a

mandate to promote the discrimination of gays, but it was a strong

message that said: Marriage is between a man and a woman. Gay people,

who experts say represent 3% or less of the population, are God’s

children, too. Yet their actions and lifestyle are their own.

There is ongoing debate in the scientific community over the

genetic evidence that one is predisposed to becoming a homosexual.

That said, gays should have the right to have a civil union and have

access to patient partners in hospitals and other basic rights such

as employment, etc.

But Bell’s analogy, equating gays to the discrimination of black

people 50 years ago, is a large stretch. Black Americans can’t change

their skin color, but many gays have returned to a straight

lifestyle.

Orthodox churches don’t want to “fix” anyone including gays. We

pray that they will find God’s word as their authority for life and

discover Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. However, orthodox

churches will not bend to the culture’s desire to change our church

liturgy or the laws of the land and make “marriage” anything but a

union between a man and a woman.

Bell should reflect on the vote count on marriage both nationally

and within the readership of the Daily Pilot. An overwhelming

majority want marriage to remain as it is.

BILL DUNLAP

Newport Beach

Editing effort

busted this time

I don’t mean to be critical, but what in the world is happening to

the grammar and English of the writers of the Daily Pilot? Saturday,

there was something in there about a “busted gas line.” I mean, come

on, is that the way we want our children in school to be speaking? A

busted gas line instead of a broken gas line, or a gas line that had

burst? Today I picked up the Sunday paper, in the article about Linda

Dixon, it says “moments came in the last two years when Linda Dixon

wondered if the Costa Mesa City Council and her were the right fit.”

Would that person say, “was her the right fit?”

Come on, anybody who has been to school would know that the word

should be she. I’m almost afraid to turn to the rest of the articles

in the paper.

LOUISA ARNOLD

Costa Mesa

Me should have been I, according to English

I’ve just opened the paper, I’m looking at the front page of the

Pilot, and here is Steve Smith, in the first paragraph, saying, “He

was a teenager, only a couple of years older than me, growing up in

Los Angeles,” blah, blah. I do believe the correct English is, “He

was only a teenager, a couple of years older than I.”

PATRICIA IRWIN

Corona del Mar