Letter to the editor in today’s Era ends this way:

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, for the world goes not well, but his kingdom comes!

Is there another newspaper, another community in America where people feel compelled to proselytize via letter to the editor?

Well, I’m sure there is. But I’m not real certain what the point of these letters to the editor - and the Era, in particular, gets and prints them all the time - is supposed to be. I mean, you want to preach, brother, knock yourself out. But is the letters to the editor section really the best place to win souls for Jesus, amidst the complaints about the welfare system and messy city streets? Has there ever been a case when someone is just leisurely reading through the editorial page, comes across such a letter, smacks his forehead and says, “THAT’S IT, HALLELUIA!”

Or maybe it’s all just in case. In any event, newspaper types like to see the letters to the editor section as a cross-section of what the community is really thinking and saying. To that end, the letter that follows this one is by an avowed gay man, ripping the paper’s coverage of the local theater scene and demanding an apology.

The old and the new; a strange cross-section indeed.