THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer's name, city, and state.

*1* WILLIAM KRISTOL's article, like many other articles about Pope John Paul II, correctly lauds his bravery, his intellectualism, his leadership, and his accomplishments. But you have overlooked the main player. John Paul was God's instrument. The pope, like all of us, was flawed and made mistakes as he tried to accomplish God's will. But, according to the Bible, God takes part in the affairs of men through believers such as John Paul.

One must consider that God wanted to end Communism's reign of terror in Eastern Europe, and that God speaks through the Bible and through his preachers, such as John Paul, about divorce, abortion, poverty, and other issues.

I recognize that it makes people nervous to raise the issue of God's intervention in world affairs because then we may be victimized by a person who leads us astray with "the word of the Lord." But believers who, having prayed for years for the end to Communist evil, then see Communism's end in Eastern Europe, must recognize that God has answered their prayers. Pope John Paul was a great man in achieving God's purposes.

--JC Herring

*2* I AM GRATEFUL for Fred Barnes's article about John Paul II. We should emphasize his importance to evangelical Protestantism. Perhaps The Weekly Standard is not the best place to talk about God, evangelism, conservative Christianity, and such; but Barnes made an exception this time. And I hope he will do it again soon.

--Dave Davis

*3* THE WORLD MOURNS the loss of a great leader and humanitarian in Pope John Paul II. And while he was a great fighter for peace, human dignity, and freedom, the gospel he proclaimed was not the gospel of Jesus Christ as understood by Protestants--as understood from the Bible alone. The gospel he preached was not that of "Bible-based Christianity," and should not be confused with it.

Evangelicals have no place for Mary (faith alone); our sacraments have no bearing upon our actual salvation (grace alone); we need no intercessor in heaven other than the Intercessor--Jesus Christ (Christ alone). We derive these beliefs from the Bible (Scripture alone); not the Bible plus tradition, not the Bible plus the church, and not the Bible plus the pope.

The Roman Catholic and Protestant gospels are incompatible (Council of Trent); and not to recognize this is to miss the point of the Reformation; to miss why we are Protestants, not Catholics. While it surely is welcome for evangelicals and Catholics to work together on social issues, we shouldn't confuse social issues with the gospel.

Let us mourn the loss of a great humanitarian, but not a great leader of evangelical Christianity.

--Norm Weeks

*4* IRWIN STELZER writes: American residences are now worth almost $17 trillion, and mortgages against them come to only a bit more than $7 trillion, leaving what Greenspan calls a "fairly large buffer against price declines." So homeowners can relax.

I'd like to call Stelzer on that one. My mortgage and my debt, all at under 6 percent fixed, comes to about 1/3 of my home value. My sister-in-law has a new house purchased with an 80 percent mortgage, variable rate, and no buffer in her budget. Together we average close to the 7/17 ratio Stelzer mentioned, but only one of us is relaxed at the moment about interest rates and housing bubbles.

Stelzer knows better: Individuals are not averages.

--Stan in Flyover, CA

*5* RACHEL DICARLO gives an excellent summary of an American Dreams. Perhaps only those of us who lived those lives are interested in reliving them. There was, after all, considerable pain accompanying those years. Present-day television is more interested in inflicting pain (embarrassing others by highlighting faults, weaknesses, and failures) than in learning from real, historical pain. Canceling this show will cause some pain, but it is a sign of the times.

--Peter Hughes

*6* I AGREE WITH much of what William Anderson has to say. For Jeb Bush to claim he was powerless to intervene is the biggest travesty yet. He had confirmation from the Thomas and More Legal Foundation, as well as Alan Keyes, one of the most brilliant constitutional minds in a long while, that not only verified his authority, but pointed out he would be derelict in his duty if he did not intervene. So Jeb Bush knew he had full authority to take control and get it out of the hands of the judge and Michael Schiavo. For him to say otherwise shows he has no backbone whatsoever, and no understanding of his own legal and moral obligation to put this two-bit judge in his place. Yes it happened to an innocent woman, but when the war was on, the Florida legislature, governor, Congress, and the president all blinked.

The tyrants in black have won; Will any of us have the courage to at least put them back in their place? Will anyone recognize Judge Greer had no legal authority to give orders to sheriffs or police? Not only has he usurped the constitution of Florida, but he has neutered Florida's executive branch and legislature as well. Just when will we wake up?

--David Craft

*7* WILLIAM ANDERSON's suggestion of spine transplants for our elected legislators is most fitting. Years ago, a Harvard graduate, elected to the legislature at only 22, went to the state capitol and led the charge to impeach the chief justice of the state supreme court. The state was New York, the year was 1880, and the Harvard graduate was Theodore Roosevelt.

Where is our TR? We need a leader capable of taking on Judges Greer and Whittemore in Florida, and numerous other judges on the state and federal level.

Thomas Jefferson said the Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary. We need a "revolution" within the Constitution, to restore the checks and balances which include an active use of impeachment, conviction, and removal from the bench for high crimes--murder by dehydration.

--James Renwick Manship, Sr.

*8* WILLIAM ANDERSON says it is over, but it is not over down here among the grassroots; we are merely regathering and regrouping our forces for the upcoming judicial battles. Now that we have seen the true nature and purpose of the opposition, we are even more resolved than before to end judicial activism and to reaffirm the Constitution, in its original meaning, as the law of the land.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet; she hasn't even made it to the stage.

--Christine Golden

*9* FRANKLY, HUGH HEWITT misses the point of why I, personally, am very upset about the Republican-led involvement in the Terri Schiavo case. In the end, it comes down to this: It is none of the federal government's business. The Schiavo dispute was, and should have remained, a family matter. The families could not agree, so state courts handed it back and forth for 15 years. Do you think the Congress could make a genuine difference in an emergency session over the weekend? It was political grandstanding at its very ugliest. They just simply should not have gotten involved. I have been a Republican my entire adult life, but for the first time, I have been ashamed to say it.

--George Hersh

*10* OH, THOSE troublesome facts! I'm sure the author simply wasn't aware of the two points Henry Sokolski discussed. I simply cannot believe that such a respected newspaper would knowingly print distortions that slight members of the Bush administration. As for Jimmy Carter, his offer to the Shah sounds just as sensible and wise as the rest of his policy toward Iran was.

--Mike Hollins