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Destiny’s actions bear little resemblance to Christianity

I commend Alison Mau (July 31) for her opinion piece on the selfstyled, self-appointed, so-called bishop of the minority Destiny Church. As a regular (define regular) attendee at a longstanding mainstream Christian church, I cannot recognise much resembling a Christian church in their performance in that they have absolutely no compunction in disturbing other people from going about their lawful pursuits, nor having any care about valid science in dealing with Covid. Their leader has a predilection for expensive toys (unlike the founder of the Christian faith), at the expense of his followers, who are of the lower socio-economic strata. Peter Patten, Auckland

Trump and Putin

Lorne Kuehn (Letters, July 31) is correct in asserting that the Ukraine war would not have happened during a Donald Trump presidency.

Trump wanted to withdraw the US from Nato and was curiously in thrall to Vladimir Putin. Trump would undoubtedly have permitted his sponsor Putin to overrun Ukraine and arrive unchallenged on the Polish border. The world can be thankful that Trump is relegated to the sidelines, if only for the present.

Tom Andrews, Masterton

It’s fairly disingenuous of Kuehn to state that ‘‘the economies of the world and America were much more solvent under Trump than at present’’. Quite aside from the fact that US national debt rose by an astonishing US$7.8 trillion (NZ12.4t) under Trump’s watch, only a die-hard Republican would insist that anything but the Covid pandemic is to blame for the upcoming recession. As to the question of whether one egomaniac would have stopped his equally-unstable Russian crony from declaring war, we’ll never know.

Jo Youl, Tai Tapu Having been treated to the allegedly good things that happened under the rule of exPotus Trump, it is appropriate to be reminded also of things that were far from good under his tutelage, things that will most likely come to be seen as having tarnished his reputation to a point beyond repair.

In this respect there is a comparison to be drawn with leaders of other nations, past and present, such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot and Boris Johnson, etc. They all did things that were perceived by some to have been good.

Slowly but surely, the rotten fruits of January 6 are being winkled out of the GOP barrel to spend time in the midden reflecting, by their own admission, on misdeeds and on their mistaken obeisance to who has been, in effect, the worst president-cum-ex-president in American history.

Their shortcomings have seen them weighed rightly in the scales of justice, but the puppeteers and others who have encouraged their wanton practice have so far not been brought to heel. They should be, and that should include Trump at the very least.

John D Mahony, Christchurch

MPs time-wasting

That National Party leader Chris Luxon went to Hawaii is not the problem, the problem is that MPs are wasting time and our money baiting him.

We see Parliament on TV and MPs are either acting the fool, or worse still, absent from the chamber while items are being discussed. We deserve better value for our money.

Bob Wichman, Auckland

Student debt burden

The student loan article (‘‘In search of the debt exiles’’, Business, July 31) shows a huge amount of money owing, and almost certainly difficult to recover. The government needs the students to come home, but why should they?

Suppose you were such a graduate. You are asked to come home for a salary about twothirds of what you currently have. You have a student loan that has grown to a rather hefty size thanks to compound interest of just under 7%, when the best you could get for bank deposits is 1%, thanks to the Reserve Bank’s loose monetary policy.

Further, thanks to said policy, politicians and local body staff are heavily invested in property and hence have no interest in doing anything about it. House prices don’t count in inflation figures and are therefore never that politically embarrassing. Property is far more expensive than almost anywhere else, given the salaries.

If you are a doctor, you will be dumped into an understaffed hospital. Now, if you were such a graduate, why would you even consider it?

Ian Miller, Lower Hutt

Blame for guns

I laughed at the apparent naivete of Chris Cahill in that he apparently states there was no evidence of systemic illegal firearm importation (‘Gun

Opinion

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2022-08-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282003266192241

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