Lobbyists

To the Editors:

Your cover on lobbying [Aug. 7] could very well be classified as a minicourse on who runs the country and how legislation is manipulated by special-interest groups. It is an excellent expose of how the people's elected representatives in Washington are influenced.

John Locko

Lorain, Ohio

It wasn't a handful of well-financed professionals who defeated the lobby-disclosure bill. Tens of thousands of environmentalists, religious activists and civil libertarians saw this bill as an assault on their right to communicate with Congress. The bill would have required massive and expensive record keeping by virtually every organization in America with any interest in federal legislation and permitted unparalleled new surveillance of political activities. If the lobby bill is dead, democracy is the winner.

(The Rev.) Barry W. Lynn

Office for Church in Society

United Church of Christ

Washington, D.C.

The reported ability of a single Washington lobbyist to change legislation dramatically with simple arguments and a single contact on the Hill is unrealistic. A check with TIME'S own Washington lobbyists would have provided insight into the complexities of dealing with the Federal Government.

C.T. ("Kip") Hewlett Jr.

Springfield, Va.

Contact in and of itself is not enough, say TIME'S own lobbyists. It takes facts, figures and a well-argued case to have any influence.

Why don't we just forget about electing representatives of the people and leave the whole bundle of wax to the umpteen thousand lobbyists who seem to be directing the traffic as it is? We could save ourselves the cost of some 500 Congressmen and their staffs and make a start at reducing the national debt.

Jan Smit Coconut

Grove, Fla.

Mormons and Mormonism

The stability of Mormonism [Aug. 7] is most appealing to those who are experiencing conflict in the home and may be turning to this religion for help. Actually, Mormon families are stable because carefully defined roles have been created and are acted out by each member. Each male is expected to lead, each female to follow, regardless of temperament or capability.

Mormon ideals, however, do not promote warmth and intimacy between marital partners and offspring, despite "forced togetherness," nor do they encourage growth of the individual, open communication or independent thought. Since leaving the Mormon church, my own family is closer, more supportive, more optimistic, and happier as individual and independent human beings.

Jo Robertson

Tampa, Fla.

Writer Ostling states that "the most offensive tenet vanished" from the Mormon religion with the recent acceptance of black males to the priesthood. "Curiouser and curiouser," to quote Alice from her Wonderland. Just what is it that makes it more offensive to degrade black men than to degrade all women?

Lynne Bacon

Fort Myers, Fla.

I question Mr. Kimball's inspired revelation about blacks. But was it from God, or was it from the Supreme Court?

David Moore

Fullerton, Calif.

You say that there is no accepted archaeological proof of the Book of Mormon 's claim that ancient Jews immigrated to the Americas. According to Cyrus H. Gordon, professor of Hebraic studies at New York University, an inscription found on a stone in a burial mound near Bat Creek in Tennessee shows that Jews reached America more than 1,000 years before Columbus arrived. This may not be enough for the doubting Thomases, but other evidence may yet come to light, and in the meantime, I and my family have a better life because of our devotion to the church.

Richard B. Taylor

Las Vegas

Your article left some impressions which deserve correction. First, to portray Mormon women as oppressed, overburdened and unappreciated is both inaccurate and unfair. Second, you describe church business investments and explain how income from them is used, without also noting that the church has always paid taxes on such income. Finally, I must admit that references to Mormon liberals who have "deep but carefully concealed doubts" about nonbiblical scriptures bother me. There are skeptics in every religion, and it is fair and proper to report their views, but to stop there, as you did, can be misleading. There are literally millions of Mormons who have put their faith to the test and have found that it fully meets their spiritual as well as practical needs. Let's hear it from some of them too.

J. Mitchel Scott

Lancaster, Pa.

As a Catholic who was fed on Mormon canned goods during Depression years, I would like to thank publicly a maligned and generous group of people.

Catherine Holland

Fullerton, Calif.

The Dropping Dollar

The dollar is dropping [Aug. 7] because demand for the dollar is dropping, because there are too many dollars, because dollars are created by the Federal Reserve, because the U.S. Government spends more dollars than it receives, because Congress passes spending laws, because voters want them.

ID. Brukes

Houston

Soon, I fear, it will be more than just a touch of whimsy when I say, "I have a yen for the dollar."

Elsa Anderson Kaunat

Wycombe, Pa.

Endangered Species

On behalf of 18 conservation, environmental and animal-welfare organizations, I emphatically deny the statement that environmental groups "accepted reluctantly" the amendments to the Endangered Species Act advocated by Senators Howard Baker and John Culver [July 31].

We have strongly opposed any weakening of that act. This landmark legislation has worked extremely well to resolve more than 5,000 conflicts between federal projects and endangered plants and animals. Senators Baker and Culver want to create a political committee that would decide the fate not just of obscure species like the snail darter, but also of great whales and whooping cranes and any other creature that happens to get in the way of a dam or highway or offshore development.

Craig Van Note

The Monitor Consortium

Washington, D.C.

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