Jesus would have us side with oppressed
I was saddened to read the Dec. 9 BDN letter to the editor from a University of Maine alumnus who ended his relationship with the university over his opposition to UMaine men’s basketball team’s support of the LGBTQ community in North Carolina.
The writer cited Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 1, in support of his belief that God’s moral law is being violated. But what would Jesus do?
In Luke 10, a lawyer asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responded, “What is written in the law?” Citing the Hebrew scriptures, the lawyer answered, to love God and to love your neighbor. Jesus said that is correct.
When the lawyer asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, who cared for an injured man after two religious leaders passed him by. Jesus told the lawyer to do as the Samaritan did.
In John 4, Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman. In doing so, Jesus transcended the social boundaries of his day because Jews of that time regarded Samaritans as outsiders and treated women as inferior to men.
In Luke 4, Jesus announced his ministry by reading from the prophet Isaiah, who said that God’s chosen one would bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and let the oppressed go free. In short, Jesus sided with the marginalized in his society.
We who are the followers of Jesus should follow his example. I believe that means siding with those who suffer oppression in our time, including the LGBTQ community.
John Maddaus
Orono
PUC wrong to deny Emera rate increase
The commissioners of the Maine Public Utilities Commission in a report released earlier this month criticized Emera for its willingness to listen to the concerns of Bar Harbor neighbors along Woodbury Road where it initially planned to build a major electrical substation. That neighborhood is loaded with kids and building and operating a substation there would have put them at risk. The commission denied Emera’s request to raise rates for electricity customers to recoup the added cost.
Emera listened closely to those concerns and agreed to consider a number of other sites, including the one chosen on Prospect Road, visible from Route 3. In planning to build there, Emera closely listened again to many residents of Bar Harbor about the importance to tourism of using a design that would be compatible with the nearby historic Beatrix Farrand-designed garden and orchard. We thank Emera for the tactful negotiating team they assigned to interact with residents who participated in these meetings.
I disagree with the commission’s criticism of Emera about its willingness to listen to neighbors and then to design a tasteful architectural style. Had the least expensive plan been used, as the commission suggested, a family-friendly neighborhood would have been put at risk and an unattractive industrial-style cyclone fence edifice would have been visible to tourists entering Bar Harbor along Eagle Lake Road.
Was the extra cost worth it? Yes, definitely. Should Emera now have to bear the full added cost for these two decisions? I say no, definitely.
Gary W. Conrad
Bar Harbor
Trump’s troubling administration
Michael Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York City, at the Democratic National Convention tried to warn us about Donald Trump. He called Trump risky, untrustworthy and dangerous.
I am also concerned about Trump’s lack of concern for the real facts, his nationalist and anti- globalization rhetoric and his scapegoating techniques. All of this, with his big ego, I believe is a dangerous but familiar pattern in history. All his picks of wealthy corporate businessmen, Wall Street insiders, generals and conservative politicians for high government posts also is very troubling.
Steven Roth
Swans Island