ASU will be getting a letter......

I don't know how many of you Sun Devils read "The State Press" - ASU's school newspaper, but Jon picked one up the other day, when he had nothing else to read on the bus. He came home and immediately told me that I needed to read a few of the articles, because there are 3 offensive articles and a horrible comic strip and he couldn't believe somebody wrote it, let alone got it published!!

The first article is called "Missionary works double sided" and it is written by Austin Yost.

Yost apparently believes that missionaries do not deserve the respect, honor or admiration we give them because they have alternative motives. He claims that missionaries (from any church) only perform acts of service for two reasons: 1) to "sell" their religious subscription and 2) because they want to impress God.

"Missionaries seem to think they have a special relationship with god, such that they feel as though it is their responsibility to dedicate part of their lives to helping people. I find the good work they do commendable, but cannot avoid taking issue with the intent on which many of them act, as explicitly declared by many people and organizations that promote and engage missionary work." Yost says.

He goes on to quote Elder Dallin H. Oaks when he said, "We do missionary work in order to baptize and confirm". He also quotes the New Tribes Mission who said, "NTM exists to ... evangelize unreached people groups, translate the scriptures, and see indigenous churches established that glorify God".

He goes on to say, "In other words, many missionaries are not doing good deeds for the sake of doing good deeds. They are not helping people for the sake of helping people. Rather, their specific intent is to spread the words of the holy book they subscribe to because it is what they think their god demands of them [...] This realization makes the good things many missionaries do seem less convincing, less sincere and less worthy of praise."

This lends itself to his next point. He asks you to compare the way missionaries act to the work place. "Consider an example. Suppose two people work for a company. The first employee says she is going going to volunteer because she wants to help other people. The second employee says that he is going to volunteer because the boss asked him to help unemployed people by giving them a job. Because he wants to please the boss, he complies with the request and does not take into consideration whether unemployed people he finds were even looking for work [...] Many people would think higher of the first employee because her motives seem to be significantly more sincere than those of her counterpart."

He concludes by saying, "When people commit the fatal error of ignoring the intentions behind actions, it allows them to reach the sometimes unjustified conclusion that missionaries should be honored, admired or respected."

Now, I don't care what religion you "subscribe" to, this is one of the most offensive articles I have ever read - and for it to be in the University's newspaper really makes me uncomfortable.

The point that Yost fails to realize is that missionaries serve people and help people, not because they want to "impress" God, but instead because they love Him and his children. They believe that by sharing their message of the Bible and of Heavenly Father, they are providing a service in itself.

I can only speak for missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because I am most familiar with them, but I know they they are doing good deeds because they realize that every person is their brother and sister and they want to bring them the peace and happiness and love they feel.

I don't know where this guy came from, but I think this is an extremely one-sided and extremely offensive article.

Another article is called "Introducing loaded guns into Grand Canyon an abysmal idea" that ends up not really talking about how guns in the Grand Canyon would be bad, but instead how guns are bad all together. Whether you are pro-2nd amendment or not, the author, Kartik Talamadupula, will surprise you with his lack of research, his one-sided argument, and his poor writing.

Finally, the last offensive article is called "Extreme evangelists pose threat" where Max Feldhake is trying to make explain why Extreme Evangelists are very dangerous, but he ends up talking about regular Christianity. He tries to make is seem as though Christians are worse than other radical groups - his first paragraph says, "A shadow looms large over America and what's more, the world. It is neither radical jihadist or Islamic movements, nor neo-Nazism or neo-Fascism, but rather extreme evangelical Christianity."

I can't believe this guy!!

So, by the time I get to the comics in this newspaper, I am certainly ready for some fun - but then I see a comic strip that I simply could not believe!!

It is called "Blah" and here is how it goes....

Square One:

Character 1: (punching Character 2 in the face) Knock! Knock! Anyone Home??

Square Two:

Character 2: What the hell?! What was that for??

Character 1: Ha Ha D'you know how they say like the eyes are doors to the soul?

Square Three:

Character 2: (With a very angry face and holding Character 1 by the shirt) They also say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Character 1: (smiling) ha ha, yeah? I heard that one bef.....

Square Four:

Character 1 is on the ground with a knife pointing out of his stomach with a puddle of blood.

Ha ha - that's super funny right? WRONG!!! It is probably the most disturbing thing I have ever seen!!! Add to it the fact that the author's name is Qa'ed Tung and I am officially freaked out!!!

All I have to say is, who is the editor of this thing?? Who is the staff advisor who allows this crap to be distributed to the student body of ASU and why doesn't the student body ban together and demand that these people can no longer write!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, all I can say is that Jon and I will be writing a letter to let people know exactly what we feel about this issue of "The State Press".