Your Words

Balloon Concerns
The support that Montana residents gave the Hi-Line Sletten Cancer Center was uplifting (“Walk This Way,” Winter 2008).

Nothing in Montana is “around the corner” and driving hundreds of miles to participate in a walk or seek cancer treatment is something most of us never will have to do.

But the balloon release to commemorate those touched by cancer probably will bring death. Those balloons will come down, most likely over the Atlantic Ocean. Balloons floating in the water look like food to sea turtles (eaters of jellyfish), and once ingested, can cause death.

Planting a tree in remembrance will have more lasting and eco-friendly effects. Please, spread the word.

—Lynn Kendrick
Dorothy, New Jersey

Scripture Note
In the Winter 2008 issue, “Words You Live By” misquotes Isaiah 54:10. The name for God that consistently is employed in connection with God’s “covenant of peace” is the Hebrew Tetragrammaton Yawveh, not Adonai. This distinction is indicated in English translations by fully capitalizing the name LORD when the Hebrew employs the Tetragrammaton. Adonai is rendered Lord. It is the LORD, the God of free and faithful grace, who promises, “My unfailing love for you will not be shaken.”

 —Joel C. Gerlach
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

Subprime Objections
I am a licensed mortgage broker. A sentence in the article “Housing Woes?” (Winter 2008) states that one of the “tricks” lenders used was an adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM. Exactly how was offering our clients an ARM a trick? Tricking someone suggests deceit, but every client is given a Good Faith Estimate as well as a Truth in Lending form. Lenders also are required to issue each client a CHARM booklet (Consumer and book on Adjustable-Rate Mortgages), which addresses basic risks and advantages of ARMs. There are people out there who didn’t understand the risks of taking on an ARM, but to portray the mortgage industry as tricking people is inaccurate and just plain unfair.

—Coleen Schindler
Orange Park, Florida

In your recent “Subprime Quiz” (“Housing Woes?” Winter 2008), I take issue with the question/answer that blames the current subprime mortgage crisis on an increase in foreclosures in 2007. Foreclosures are yet another consequence of our consumer-driven society and inherent desire to want more than we can afford, but the root cause of this crisis is bad loan decisions by lenders.

How did these mortgage brokers get permission to do business in the first place? Certainly, this mess affects everyone, but it didn’t have to if the right checks and balances had been in place.

—Jeff Wilhelm
Greenville, Michigan

On Tithing
In your article (“When Opposites Attract,” Winter 2008),  I feel you missed an important element: tithing. My husband and I are Missouri Synod Lutherans, and from day one of our marriage, we have tithed. We never have had any financial problems and always have had enough money for things we need. We use credit cards but never carry a balance, and so never pay interest. Only on our home mortgage did we pay interest. God has blessed us, and we are truly thankful!

—Donna Michel
Billings, Montana

Note: Views expressed in these letters are not necessarily the views of Thrivent magazine or Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.