First, I want to thank The Pilot and Mike Newman, the Pinehurst village attorney, for “Addressing Rumors on Village Green” (March 13). Newman clearly explained all the facts, especially that The Village Chapel is building on its own property, a two-acre parcel gifted by Pinehurst Inc. in October 1982, and that restrictions on building on that property were removed by Pinehurst LLC in December 2008.

Second, I want to thank Geoff Cutler for his article “What If Hearings Were on Christian Radicalism?” I fully agree with Cutler that I, a Christian, would certainly want Congress to conduct hearings if it were found that “extremist Christian groups were growing ... and that they had succeeded in radicalizing adherents to violence” especially if “this violence ... represented a constant threat to the safety of the American public.” If Maj. Nidal Hassan (Fort Hood shooter) was a Christian extremist, he would have been discharged a long time before any possibility of violence.

Third, I thank Dusty Rhoades for his article “Mustn’t Let Sharia Law Come Creeping.” I had not known that Alabama state Sen. Gerald Allen introduced a bill, similar to one in Oklahoma, that bans the state’s courts “from using Sharia law or international law in making legal decisions.” Unlike Rhoades, I feel that this is the correct time to introduce such legislation, to let people in the state, or contemplating a move into the state, know the law in advance.

Heading off a problem before it happens is better than having to deal with it later, when proponents may argue that Muslims who believe in Sharia law are already in the state, and it would be difficult for them to move.

Peggy Smetana

Pinehurst