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When love isn't enough
 I
APPRECIATED your article on what TCU's psychology department is doing
for adopted children and their families in the Winter issue cover article,
"When Love is Not Enough."
However,
I observed that the paragraph that discusses sensory integration disorder
seems to imply that children diagnosed with this disorder develop SID
as a direct or indirect result of emotional neglect. This should be clarified.
SID can result
from other causes besides the ones mentioned in the article, which discusses
mainly continuous emotional neglect from birth. Premature birth, birth
trauma and even heredity can play a role in whether or not a child develops
SID.
I know this
because my full-term, drug-free birthed, breastfed, family-bedded, sling-worn
baby was recently diagnosed with SID. His father and I are with him and
meet his needs consistently and gently. We are glad that now there are
things we can do for him to help him even more. It would be a shame for
the parents of those children with SID who have yet to be diagnosed to
be mislead about the nature of SID.
As society
becomes more aware of sensory integration issues, more families will get
the help that they need, which does a great service for our children.
Leigh
Anne Munoz
Los Angeles California
Lost
and found
Technology
is wonderful when it works, but it can sometimes do inexplicable things
that work against us.
We
experienced such a mishap with the 1999 Donor Report, which was mailed
out with the Winter issue. Whether the Y2K bug had a hand in this or some
other technological mischief was at work, the report failed to include
33 donors from the "Alumni Donors" section.
We
are embarrassed and sorry to have dropped the names of these wonderful
alumni who chose to support alma mater last year. Each one of them has
been contacted personally by letter, but we wanted the TCU community to
be aware of their generosity.
Bronson
C. Davis
Vice
Chancellor for University Advancement
Class of 1998
Michele Denise Peoples
Curba Bonar Piehl
Donald Lanier Plunkett, Jr.
Christopher Dailey Poland
Michelle Redwine
Molly Regal Kristin
Marie Renfro
Teresa Ann Richardson
Keri Lyn Reiger
Dana Michele Robertson
Susan Elizabeth Robideaux
Michael Anthony Roche
Susan Elizabeth Rolander
Class
of 1958
Dorothy Eugenia Wofford Corbin
Richard Cotton Paul L. Coulter
Jack L. Crabtree
Nancy Lee White Crouch
Vernon Dale Crues James Cruze
Jerry S. Daniel
Barbara Garland Davis
Gail Lynette Woltman DeMoss
Class of 1946
Betty Mae Davis Harrelson
Hannah Adelle Groginski Harris
Norman N. Hoffman Joy Holder
Bettye Jean Brown Huddle
Max M. Humphreys
Eugene L. James
Richard E. Jay
Sue Cotham Jones
Joann Karges
Thou
shalt not publish
I certainly agree with student writer Tara Pope '00 ("Burning issues,"
Winter) that an appropriate forum for student appeal could be useful.
In
addition, I commend her and the TCU Daily Skiff for exercising good judgment
in interpreting university guidelines for good taste and decency by declining
to publish a column advocating a nude TCU coed photo op.
I'm
concerned, however, that relying simply on "normal standards of decency
and respect..." could result in a regrettable choice.
Therefore,
considering the word, "Christian," which continues to be included in the
name of the University, I believe that in such situations it would be
wise to ask, "What would Jesus do?"
Maybe
Tara did.
Jay R. Hackleman '64
Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan
The
Christian in TCU
Since
attending TCU, I have noticed it has been watering down the "Christian"
part of its name and what it should stand for. This is understandable
since the institution is competing for consumer dollars in the secular
marketplace.
But
TCU is, or should be, different. It calls itself a Christian university
and by doing so should have a sense of obligation to promote the Gospel
of Christ as its main priority. Otherwise, if it is trying to join the
crowd of other large schools to reach higher "tiers" as its main priority,
with the goal of higher student enrollment and more prestigious faculty,
and higher endowments, it would do so more ably if it dropped the Christian
label, which is a liability in our modern worldly society.
The
label of Christianity should not be used as a ploy or tool for material
gain and prestige by individuals. It can lead to confusion where I can
see some would identify TCU with the church and regard support of either
to be one and the same. Your magazine is a vanity publication for praising
and honoring financial donors and their relatives proportionately -- publicly
and explicitly. Yet, Christ taught that we should give in secret as God
knows and recognizes what we do.
But
I question the purpose of identifying donors' religions. By being overzealous
to be tolerant, it is a de facto selling out of the Christian beliefs
on which TCU was founded. There is nothing wrong with having a "Jewish"
stadium or a "Moslem" student center, but by calling attention to religion,
race, gender, national origin and anything else you can publicize, it
is promoting bias through use of labels.
TCU
offers nondenominational education and does not hold its students and
faculty to rigorous standards of personal behavior. If you visit the campus
of TCU, how is it "noticeably" different from the state-run schools that
make no pretense of being Christian? The danger of showing excessive tolerance
for non-Christian and even anti-Christian beliefs leads to passive endorsement
and naive promotion of what the Christian church has battled since its
inception, and faces toward today's sophisticated humanistic learned circles
who turn their backs on God. I seldom read anything about Brite, but your
pages are crammed about the technical fields and TCU's fight to assert
itself there. Theology has been called the mother of sciences.
Has
TCU forgotten God? After all, the most exhaustive studies in any field
eventually must end with God.
You
can tolerate and respect beliefs of others, but you don't have to endorse
them or join them to prove your goodness out of your fear of the world's
opinion of you. No one ever said the Christian lifestyle brings popularity
and material gain. Look at Christ Himself and the martyrs since. TCU should
not try to join the mad race for higher tiers of recognition at the cost
of giving up the values on which it was founded.
Let us remember that Christians should seek the praise of God, not men.
It would be well for all students, faculty and alumni to bear this in
mind. Where are you headed? Where is TCU headed? Will you have room for
Christ in the new millennium?
Thayer
K. Miller, Brite '54
Harmony, Pa.
From
the Book of Walsch
In
response to Harold DeHart's letter from the Winter issue, I suggest he
read Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch.
There
is no reason one cannot believe in creationism and evolution simultaneously;
they are not mutually exclusive. As Einstein showed, time is relative.
God may have created all life in an instant (Big Bang), but God's instant
may be billions of years in human perspective.
Evolution,
which is supported by tons of evidence, may be God's way of completing
His creation. Like the silly juvenile posturing of Republicans versus
Democrats, supporters of both theories need to get off their close-minded
high horses and realize there is middle ground.
Mr.
DeHart will also find some other wonderful ideas in Conversations,
such as: There is no Hell, no original sin, no judgment day, and we all
go to Heaven. We are part of God, and our purpose is to experience what
He can only conceptualize.
And
the path to God does not have to go through Jesus.
Thom
Haynes '81
Apex, N.C.
Bible
101, part two
IT'S
ALWAYS disconcerting yet reaffirming to discover that some with college
degrees from TCU (DeHart '60) missed out understanding some of the most
relevant parts of their required courses (Survey of the Bible).
As
one who taught that course, I am clearly aware of the course content,
required readings, etc. To understand Genesis requires an understanding
of mythology (and the Old Testament is Jewish mythology).
It
is further important to remember that similar (almost duplicated in their
entirety) creation stories are found in all other cultures and that they
predate the priestly writings of the Pentateuch.
That
Old Testament God was everything but a God of Love. In it you find a tribal
God, a mountain God, an agricultural God, a patriarchal God, a vengeful
and sadistic God, a war God, a God of the temple and a God of the Ark,
among others.
Genesis
has at least two creation myths and is not even monotheistic ("Let us
make manÉ") What a disaster we create when we seek to convert mythological
descriptions into literal truth. What a mistake to confuse geology and
biology with theology. The former is objective, verifiable realities.
Theology
is a subjective reality simply based on personal belief. If you accept
creationism, you continue to live on a flat earth around which all of
the galaxies, and our sun, revolve.
Isn't
it time to get serious, into the 21st century and update one's theology
consistent with what we know about this vast mysterious universe and stop
attempting to fit our world and our God concept into the flat earth cosmology
of the ancient priests?
Walter
Kania, PhD, MDiv '61
Mansfield, Ohio
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