Congregation points finger

When I was growing up in a conservative Baptist church, we were taught that love, compassion and brotherhood were the basic tenets of Christianity.

The full-page ad by the Christ Memorial Baptist Church in the Sept. 9 newspaper is just another example of how the church has done an about-face and now is more in the business of hate and bigotry than in love and brotherhood.

In the "good old days" when the church taught love, we did not have to worry about crime the way we do today. When some Baptists are blaming every­one else for the decline in morals of the American people, those Baptists should look in the mirror, open their closed minds and see that they are part of the problem - not the solution.

Thank God my God still loves; and if I go to hell, I will have the satisfaction of knowing it was not for hypocrisy and spreading of hate.

WOODY BALDWIN
P.O. Box 436
Manchaca, Texas

State interfered with rights of social workers

Governor Dukakis and the members of the Legislature surely would not want a group of social workers telling them how to make laws for the Commonwealth, yet the governor and Legislature seem to consider themselves fully qualified to tell social workers what constitutes a satisfactory foster home.

It seems unconscionable to me that a group of lay people are telling trained, experienced professionals how to make judgments in their own area of expertise. I have always been a supporter of Dukakis, and guess I still am, but his disrespect for professionalism in this instance has certainly forced me to look more carefully at his moves in the future.

All professionals should find this recent action of the governor and Legislature threatening to their right to make decisions within their own professions. It is frightening, if the state can dictate to social workers what their decisions must be, then it can invade another professional area in the same way

WOODROW W. BALDWIN
Reading, Masachusetts

Let a thousand poets bloom

I take umbrage with Don McLeese's review of the Austin International Poetry Festival. I am a 77-year-old who has judged a number of poetry slams and never ceased to be amazed at the creativity, skill of word usage, knowledge and understanding of events that happened during my lifetime but before they were born, and the dramatic as well as literary talents of these poets.

McLeese says, "I have too much respect for poetic tradition to defile it with amateur spew." Is he saying there should be no junior league baseball? Athletes chould not appear publicly until they have achieved professional skills? Does he mean there should be no forum for amateurs of any endeavor?

Comparing the poetry festival with a City Council meeting smacks of one of the worst metaphors I have experienced. I would prefer to think of it as an Olympic tryout.

McLeese quotes someone as saying, "There are no bad poets, just bad judges." Perhaps this should read, "There are no bad poets or judges, just bad critics." He calls himself an elitist; perhaps we're dealing in semantics, but I would call it snobbery.

WOODY BALDWIN
Austin, Texas

Will's pompous column

Look who's talking! George Will's partisan criticism of U.S. Senate-elect Jim Webb's grammar is laughably absurd (Dec. 3 column, Telegraphing insults with simple gestures). At least people know what he is saying, which is more than can be said of Will's polysyllabic words that are obviously designed to impress.

I quote from his opening paragraph, "Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office."

Will someone translate that for me, please? And he had the gall to call Webb a "pompous poseur"!

WOODROW W. BALDWIN