To the Editor:
I happen to agree with the young, stylish woman who told Jacob Baron '10's friend, "He's right, you know" ("Sociopathic Scripture," Sept. 26). And I make the same matter-of-fact statement, without getting up and leaving you without debate.
His issue is not with what he doesn't believe; it is with what he does believe. And that is for Baron alone to determine. It is after all, his choice and not the choice of his friend, the "obnoxious subterranean sermonizer," nor the stylish young woman, who merely left him with an unanswered question. I am glad that the incident left him with a memory and thought worthy of a column mention, for indeed, like him, it is everyone's personal choice to determine what they believe.
If, like Baron's friend, he chooses not to believe, then the ranting and sermonizing should be just like so much hot air, for he doesn't believe there is even a place like Hell. His article points to what he does believe: that people who believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ are religiously intolerant. And that thought saddens, annoys and amuses him. Let's just leave it at the truth, which is that he is filled with mixed emotions over this dilemma. The truth is that Baron's assumption is wrong, we are not religiously intolerant. I, for one, say that you can believe what you want to believe, and it does not fill me with any sadistic joy that you do not yet know Jesus Christ.
I was once a Dartmouth student, just like Baron, with mixed emotions on the matter, and then on one cold dark winter's evening, walking back to Hinman Hall from Thayer Hall, I had a personal conversation with him, and my life has been amazingly different from that point in time. Until you have that personal meeting, and make your personal choice, you are not unlike most other people. Once you do make that choice, you will begin to understand.
I will only say this to you now. I became a "seeker," one looking for spiritual truth, and questioning all I was taught, and all that I read and heard. The answer is love, and its constant companion, forgiveness. There is no eternal torture, if there is no eternal life. And if you believe there is eternal life, then how do you choose to live it? In love ... or without love? One is eternal light and the other is eternal darkness. One is eternal joy and the other is Hell. All who search find. The truth is out there. God speed you on your journey.
