Propaganda machine lied about panels
Editor:
The recent blather of Valencia County GOP chairman Garza and others says nothing of substance and takes a ludicrous stand for preserving some imaginary “American Way” of health insurance.
All that the GOP (Greedy Oligarchy Partisans) have to say is endlessly repeated propaganda talking points handed down from headquarters via radio and TV talk shows, all of which are designed to interfere with the  democratic process.
The Republicans intend to preserve the extortionary profits of the misnamed U.S. health care industry because the Republican Party long ago sold out to the robber barons.
But bilge can be countered with facts:
The United States pays 16 percent of GDP for rotten health care (47th in the world for quality) and one third of the citizenry can not get coverage at any price. (South Korea pays 5 percent of GDP, and every person in the country gets excellent health care.)
Nobody in Canada or Europe or Japan has to worry about losing their home or life savings because a member of the family gets cancer or another terrible disease; their health systems take care of the people, not the robber barons.
The national and local GOP insist that profit-based health care corporations should continue the practice of devastating further lives of the hundreds of thousands of patients caught in a health crisis each year.
The GOP propaganda machine lied all summer about death panels (never proposed, except by GOP), mandatory abortion (GOP fantasy only), and the fear-mongering “government takeover” of the current health care cesspool because they are paid to do so. And it works because Americans are too busy working two or three jobs per household to have any time to seek out the truth.
Basic health care premiums have gone up 20 percent in each of the last several years. Did your paycheck go up twenty percent?
America needs single-payer health care, both for its own sake and to be competitive in the global markets, and America needs election reform so that elected officials of any party are no longer swayed by the “campaign donations,” i.e. bribes from corporations who get that cash by rejecting life-saving medical procedures and by raising premiums to extortionary levels.

G.E. Nordell
Belen

Vote no on jail tax, other issues priority
Editor:
I wish to thank the more than 4,000 voters who signed the petition to force the issue of the county commission’s attempt to not only extend the limited time, limited purpose gross receipts tax to build additional detention facilities, but also to make it a permanent tax.
The petition was successful, and the commission is mailing ballots to all registered voters. Unfortunately, due to the way the original ordinance was passed, the two separate issues can not now be separated. You must vote yes or no to both together.
Voting yes means you approve of the permanent tax extension for any purposes the commission chooses. Voting no means that funding for any further jail construction will have to wait for a year after this referendum and then go to another referendum. That will take a long time.
There is, however, one way the county can receive enough new gross receipts taxes without raising the tax rate. They just don’t want to do it for reasons all their own.
If they stop their unreasonable  opposition to allowing the mill levy we the voters approved, to support the initial operation of the Health Commons and hospital, so that construction can begin, there will be enough new money brought into and spent in this county to generate adequate tax  money for the county to also carefully plan and promptly construct the necessary additional prison facilities.
I am going to vote no, and I recommend that you do also.

Dr. J. E. Rizzo
Rio Communities

Salvation is a free gift from God
Editor:
Ms. Van Armin, I know the difference between someone stating an opinion and someone using hurtful, hateful lies to denigrate, humiliate, and destroy the reputation of one with whom they disagree. I’ve suffered it many times in this paper. It’s persecution, pure and simple.
And speaking of pure and simple I stand by the simple belief that we are saved by faith through grace, because, as the song goes, the Bible tells me so.
We were washed white as snow by the blood of the lamb. All we have to do to receive eternal life is to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It’s that simple.
Jesus taught nothing that contradicts this. Read Luke 7:36-50; Jesus was having dinner in the house of a Pharisee. An immoral woman came and washed Jesus’ feet with oil mixed with her tears and dried his feet with her hair. The Pharisee used this to prove that Jesus was no prophet, stating that if God had sent him he would have never allowed a sinner such as this to touch him.
Jesus replied, telling his host that he had not performed the act of washing the dust from Jesus’ feet, that he had not performed the act of giving Jesus a kiss of greeting, and that he had neglected the act of courtesy of using olive oil to anoint Jesus’ head.
Jesus gave a lesson about forgiveness, then told the woman she was saved. He did not say she was saved because of her above-mentioned acts. He said “Your faith has saved you.”
Yes, Ms. Van Armin, by God’s grace, we are saved by faith alone.
There are over 500 denominations of Christianity. Some believe in a “works” salvation. They believe that we earn our salvation by the works we perform. That is inconsistent with the teachings of scripture, because a works theology implies a quota system; God grants salvation if you’ve performed your quota of good works.
The problem with works theology, aside from the fact that it is unsupportable by scripture, is that we will never know when we have met our quota and earned our salvation. Jesus did not hang on a cross so we could guess about whether we have prayed the rosary enough, said enough Hail Mary’s, or beat ourselves enough in penance. At what point is enough, enough?
Salvation is a free gift from God. Too bad so many have such a hard time accepting it, and end up wasting their lives trying to earn it, not realizing that Jesus paid the price for our salvation 2,000 years ago. Now, I believe the heart of your letter lies in something we actually agree upon. Once one takes the leap of faith, accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and is saved, the question is, what next?
Let me tell you what happened to me, and how it squares with scripture. When I was saved, a mere seven years ago, I developed a desire, nay, a compulsion, to perform acts which would bring pleasure to my Lord and Savior.
I wanted, as the scripture says, to be an imitator of Christ. Knowing that is impossible, I understood that would be my lifetime goal, to the exclusion of all other goals. My salvation was secured; now it was time to prove up the fact that “faith without works is dead.”
Again, let me emphasize that works are not necessary for salvation. If you reread my previous letter, I don’t say that one should not do works; it’s just that they are not, as God explains, tied to salvation except in that the desire to perform them flows from its receipt.
A compulsion to imitate Christ creates a lifetime desire to know him, to build a personal relationship with him, and to become spiritually intimate with him. How is this accomplished? Simple. Works!
Here’s where our works fit into the eternal perspective of our spiritual lives. Again, not to get or keep our salvation, but to honor and glorify the one who loves us so much he sent his son to die so we could have the free gift of eternal life.
Acts 2:38-47 spells out the steps to take to achieve spiritual intimacy with God. Stop sinning, repent, be baptized, read the bible, go to church, take communion, pray, share everything you have, sell your possessions and use the money to help the needy, worship together, meet in small groups, share meals, be generous, all the things you say I denounce but actually try to embrace to the fullest of my ability. Simple? Yes. Easy? Hardly.
A lady recently told me that she was a “Republican and a Bible believer,” and that I was giving people of that sort a bad name, and that I should reconsider all this speaking out and what not. This is a common attitude and a great example of a church that is falling asleep.
The ones who are still willing to profess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord are now persecuted as wacko right-wing Christian fundamentalists. As such, we can be expected to continue to be persecuted for our faith.
Nonetheless, I will keep proclaiming the gospel, and fighting the good fight and running the race, not to earn my salvation but because I long to hear  both “Well done, good and faithful servant” and the upward call of God in Christ Jesus when it’s all over.

J. Reid Mowrer
Los Lunas