Post: Readers Respond

Thank you for the year’s free subscription to Pietisten. Enclosed is my check for another year.

I commend you and the whole staff for the high quality of work which is Pietisten. I look forward to each issue, and usually read it all in one sitting. That would be my one complaint—it’s just not long enough. Just as I get started reading, I’m finished.

In the most recent issue (Summer ‘92) I enjoyed the musings of the editorial staff. I appreciate the voice you give to those in the Covenant who are kindred spirits, and who are concerned about our spiritual heritage.

Keep up the good work! Rodney Liverett, Summerdale, Alabama.

Thanks again —I do enjoy!! Please send a subscription to our pastor.

Nancy and I leave this Tuesday July 21 for another one-year short-term mission in Zaire. Chuck Gustafson, Simi Valley, California.

I recently had the pleasure of being a guest at 3232 47th Avenue South in Minneapolis; the corporate headquarters of Pietisten. I was in town for the retirement festivities for Jim Baxter, the burly, hard-nosed, soft-hearted, ex-hockey and ex-football coach at Minnehaha Academy, West High, and Southwest High. Jim and I were colleagues on the faculty at M.A. in the early sixties.

3232 47th Ave. South is also the home of Pietisten’s Managing Editor and Copy editor. I was afforded the “old-time” hospitality that has also been enjoyed by the likes of Karl Olsson, Runar Eldebo, Arthur Anderson, Mel Soderstrom, Ralph Sturdy, and other luminaries. I also had the unique opportunity to sit in on a portion of the regular meeting of the Pietisten staff. It was a high-energy, raucous, and sensitive group that huddled around the table, honing the edges for the next edition of Pietisten. It has been said that the realization that there are other points of view is the beginning of wisdom. Understanding what they are is a great step. The final test is understanding why they are held. No wonder when Willard Berggren was asked why he likes Pietisten so much he replied, “Have you seen who they have over there?” Bob Bach, Altaville, California.

Your story about Garmaker (Sport Report, Spring ‘92) was quite amusing, in particular, your reference to one-hand shooting. My memory goes back to seeing, for the first time, at the old Central High (Mpls) gym, a player named George Roscoe. We spectators stood in the upper running track surrounding the gym floor and couldn’t believe how this guy twirled the ball with one hand, dropping several for two points! That was about 1933. Roscoe, I believe, went on to play at the U of M. The spectator was an Edison High student, and I have trouble believing that your Broncos beat an Edison High team, even in the ‘50s.

I got a kick out of the Skogsbergh’s Point story. I look forward to reading more on this and wish that I could help “take the Point.” We did a drama on Skogsbergh at Salem [Covenant] in 1985 and tried to re-construct a picnic at the Point with some of A. L. Skoog’s Choral numbers who sung out there.

Keep up the good work. Curtiss D. Johnson, New Brighton, Minnesota.

[The Sport Reporter, with red face, acknowledges that it was Minneapolis Patrick Henry not Edison High School that the Falls Broncos trounced in the 1954-55 season. Nevertheless, he fails to understand any “trouble” believing that the Broncos could beat Edison.]

Having grown up outside the Covenant, I have especially appreciated the last four issues of Pietisten. Reading your fine publication has given me a much greater understanding of the tradition of the Covenant to which I am happy I now belong.

Please extend my subscription for another year. Holly Weiss, Bloomfield, New Jersey.

I am sending $10 for my very own subscription to Pietisten, having sneaked glimpses at my friend Dave Bjorkquist’s copies. If you still have Summer 1992 available, I would appreciate your mailing me that issue. Thanks! Randi Cragg, Golden Valley, Minnesota.

You are simply spoiling me by sending me Pietisten regularly. Every issue seems to have something interesting—a voice from a different world.

The Soderstroms probably give you updates about me. I finished my junior year in college, next year I’ll start specializing in simultaneous translation. Tomorrow I will be leaving for Paris, France. I’ll be in Paris for a month, taking classes at the city-college.

I hope that all is well with you, too. Thank you for everything. Abu Latifoglu, Istanbul, Turkey.

Enjoyed reading the last two issues of Pietisten. Enclosed is my check for a year’s subscription. The previous issues were passed on to me by Jane Jacobson and Wilbur Westerdahl. Phil Danielson, Turlock, California.

I thoroughly enjoy your periodical. Keep it coming. I simply want to inform you of a change in address. Thank you for your inspiration and the quality product you send. Jim Anderson, New Brighton, Minnesota.

Thanks for the latest issue—a beautiful piece of Art and God and Love. Most of all, I enjoyed the Hawkinson sermon and the “Discourse on Human Condition.” The Ambiguity and the Tenderness and the Strength of the Pietistic Heritage. Keep Going! The Kingdom is present! Runar Eldebo, Lidingö, Sweden.

Here’s $10 for equipment and courage to “litterally” (pun intended) go for Skogbergh’s Point. Sherod Miller, Denver, Colorado.

I am thankful for Pietisten. This paper is like a friend to me, a friend who introduces me to other friends who, in turn, may invite me to join them in a serious theological discussion, or to take in a poetry reading, or to enjoy the “kitchen table talk” of the letter writers - the caring and “LIVE,” as it were, spontaneous responses you receive and print from the family and/or public communicants. These are always interesting to me.

Your paper, in fact, is like walking through a green growing garden. There’s always good stuff to pick and chew on and digest And, it is surprising the variety of forms and the extent of good stuff there is in it, because it doesn’t seem to be a large garden; more like just a garden patch. You wouldn’t think there’d be so much in it. Like an actual brain isn’t really very big and doesn’t weigh very much, but you’d be surprised at the sum of thoughts and know-how skills it can contain. So with your paper. It sure doesn’t seem, sizewise, that there’d be as much in it as there is, but it’s more than a 1st reading, or a 2nd reading, or a 3rd reading, discloses. It was on my 4th reading, just today, that I discovered the section called “Out and About.” And I was very much interested in this fellow Runar Eldebo who graced your front page with his article, “God My Beloved Opponent” (Spring, ‘92). I thought it an excellent piece. So I was very glad to have discovered that he visited with you there, and to find out something of what he is like. You did a wonderful reporting job, by the way.

In this Spring issue, speaking of Runar Eldebo, he really moved me when he stated, “A human existence without opposition falls into comfortability. This is the very big sin according to many of the Church Fathers, apatheia—apathy. A life without striving. A life without an opponent.”

That Eldebo sure does make one think. And his friend, that Catholic Priest, telling potential Catholics to reconsider, asking them, “Why on earth do you want to be a Catholic (or Christian), when there are so many good and comfortable lives to live without God?” He tries to dissuade them from it, because it is a giving-up-everything, even yourself, for the Lord (a hard road to go). Ed Mampel, Kingsland, Texas.

I am enclosing $10 for renewal of my subscription to Pietisten. I want to plug one of your advertisers, Kelby Decks and Landscaping. My son, Art, was very satisfied with their work and I personally was very impressed with Kip [Anderson]—his entrepreneurship in addition to his affability. Jane Jacobson, Turlock, California.