Letters: Prayer should stay in Parliament

The Speaker, Trevor Mallard, has dropped references to Jesus Christ in the parliamentary prayer. Photo / File

Jesus is tough customer

It was in interest I read that the Right Honourable Trevor Mallard has banished Jesus from the Beehive morning prayer.

Trevor is renowned for having a mind of his own, however methinks perhaps by extending his authority into the realms of the spiritual he is wandering into territory even he will find uncomfortable.

After all taking on the reputed son of the Almighty is a tad more daunting then fisticuffs at 10 paces with Tau Henare.

The last politician to challenge tradition, John Key no less, fell flat on his face when the true blue Kiwis and others told him what to do with his flag-change proposal.

The 2016 Census figures tell us there were 1,905,398 New Zealanders with Christian affiliation or belief and although there has been a steady decline in these figures over the years it certainly looks like the Jesus corner has a marked numbers advantage when the bell rings and it may be wise for Trev to consider tossing in the white towel before the punching begins in earnest.

Paul Baker
Rotorua

Faith-driven genius

The excellent movie Hidden Figures has a fascinating subtext: namely the hidden but profound effect of Jesus Christ upon the world of science.

The film's mathematical experts, the ladies who happened to be black, were also necessarily devout followers of the historical Jesus, the movie tells us.

It fails to elaborate though, that Leonhard Euler, the man who provided the solution to the film's pivotal issue, (that of the re-entry point for the spacecraft), was himself a fanatical follower of Christ.

The rationality of the world, to Euler, was due to the rationality of Almighty God who has revealed Himself in rational terms though the Bible.

Euler defined infinity, invented irrational numbers and conventionalised many things today's maths technicians take for granted.

He produced immense amounts of textbooks and publications and was the world's principal mathematician during his lifetime.

He was also happily married and raised about 10 children, whom he loved to play with at home while he worked on complex geometric problems in his head.

Euler is unquestionably one of the greatest mathematicians in history but his Wikipedia page is gloriously unaware of his profound and defining faith in the Lord Jesus and in the Christian holy book.

We might in fact say that the real hidden figure of the movie is not the ladies, nor Euler, but Jesus.

GJ Philip
Rotorua