Teng's Visit

To the Editors:

Finally, a fresh face in Washington who spoke the truth about the imperialism of Moscow -China's Teng Hsiaop'ing [Feb. 5].

A. Harvey Silverman Warwick, R.I.

I can't help feeling that China's verbal attacks on Russia are like the pot calling the kettle black.

Gerry Miner Welch Cooperstown, N. Y.

Is President Carter's China policy the coup of the century or a peep into Pandora's box?

Eva Lederman Milwaukee

Even if the Chinese gesture of friendship is to the advantage of the U.S., the Russians should not be excluded. The three powers must avoid confrontations and come closer to each other for the sake of humanity and a peaceful world.

Prahlad Ghosh Calcutta

God and the Scientists

There can be no meaningful reconciliation of science and religion as suggested by Lance Morrow in his Essay "In the Beginning: God and Science" [Feb. 5]. Their methods are diametrically opposed. Science admits it has no final answers; religion claims to have them. Science, despite its excesses, has gone far to liberate the human spirit; religion would stifle it.

David H. Brown Evergreen, Colo.

The apparent hiatus between science and religion cannot be bridged so long as the theologian and the scientist remain true to their own field of activity. The scientist is concerned only with this material universe in the making. The theologian speculates on the force outside the universe and calls it divine. In the face of the infinite, the scientist can only exclaim: "My God, what a bang!"

Brother Orlando Holy Cross Fathers and Brothers Phoenix

How can we possibly expect to come up with the answer to the Big Bang while we are still troubled with the question of the chicken and the egg?

Ethel N. Day Carleton Place, Ont.

Lance Morrow should have mentioned that the best evidence of the peaceful coexistence of science and religion is the Big Bang theory, which was conceived and stated (1927) by a Catholic priest-professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, Canon Georges Lemaitre.

I asked him once if he ever had trouble tuning his faith and his scientific work. He laughed, then said: "Science is about how, faith is about who and why."

Eugene A. Collard Mons, Belgium

John Paul in Mexico

Pope John Paul II is correct: Christ was no political leader [Feb. 12], but there is no doubt that his message to us encourages us to seek political and social change. Liberation theology did not die with Pope John Paul's visit to Mexico, just as Christ's message to "set the captive free" is not dead.

(The Rev.) Louis Michael Colonnese Davenport, Iowa

Isn't it great to see Pope John Paul II serving the people? In office a little more than three months, he is already making his mark as a true man of God.

Bill Warden Mattapoisett, Mass.

If Pope John Paul II is truly concerned with improving conditions in Latin America, he could start by lifting the church ban on birth control. What an enlightened step it would be to promulgate a campaign for planned parenthood.

Ariel Mengarini, M.D. New York City

Tempest over the Tea Company

In your article on the offer by West Germany's Tengelmann Group to buy A&P stock [Jan. 29], you observed that "the German company can certainly teach A&P much." Why? Whatever happened to "Grandma"?

From 1859, when my grandfather, George Huntington Hartford, opened the first chain store, to 1959, "the Tea Company" evolved into the world's largest retail business. Grandma was destroyed by the inept management to whom my uncles John and George had entrusted her. After the company had lost more than $50 million in 1973 alone, in desperation a president, Jonathan Scott, was brought in from outside, and he has made heroic efforts to turn it around. But as you suggest, the resources and prestige of a Tengelmann may well prove the decisive factor.

As a small stockholder, let me extend them a most cordial welcome.

Huntington Hartford New York City

Two Parents, Two Homes

Cheers to the forward-thinking divorcees who magnanimously decide to share their children as you described in "One Child, Two Homes" [Jan. 29]. I must disagree, however, with state legislators who support bills presuming joint custody. For the child whose divorced parents retain animosity toward one another, I can imagine no greater hell than being shuttled between them weekly.

James Buell Delaware, Ohio

The principle of joint custody takes into account the obvious fact that parents do not have to divorce their children when they divorce each other.

Karl Galinsky Austin

Instead of the child moving back and forth, why not the parents? We have this kind of arrangement, and it works out very well, and certainly puts much more stability in the child's life.

Jeanne Ferguson St. Paul

Getting the Job Done

In response to the article "Perils of the Productivity Sag" [Feb. 5], it seems that part of the problem is that wages have risen because of union demands, while productivity has dropped. If people were paid for the work they did and not simply for time spent at their places of work, the degree of output per man-hour would rise tremendously because the workers would try to get more done.

Timothy E. Peterman Evanston, III.

As an ordinary wage slave, I find the drop in the nation's production no mystery. About one-third of my wage vanishes into some fiscal never-never land before I see it. Why put forth more effort when, between taxes and inflation, one is either standing still or slipping backward? I still try, though I wonder why.

Nathan Gurevich Gaithersburg, Md.

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