Sir, - As an East Timorese living in Dublin I would like to respond to the article on the Presbyterian General Assembly (June 5th).
I support the views of Rev. Ian McDowell that church people who profit from selling weapons to regimes that torture and kill their citizens are hypocrites. I find it difficult to understand that it should even be an issue for those who declare themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. That they would profit from pain inflicted on fellow human beings should not be acceptable and I cannot understand how they can justify it.
Sir Eric McDowell takes pride in the fact that his church has not invested in the British lottery. Can this man ever understand how insulting that is to us East Timorese, to be relegated even lower than gambling?
I must wonder if it is the same Jesus that was at my side in East Timor and the one that Sir Eric professes to follow. - Yours, etc. Luciano Da Conceicao,
Drimnagh,
Dublin 12.