Dear editor,
I would like to respectfully disagree with the editor’s May 16 article on “Gay Marriage and the 2012 Campaign.” Mr. Lynn asks, “Why take the trouble to understand what only nerds worry about when it is more virtuous (and ever so much easier) to vote against sin?”
My opinion is that the moral decay of our country is our greatest challenge and has the potential to be our demise. The fact that we have turned away from our Christian and biblical foundation is what has weakened our great land. I am also concerned about those other issues (“that only nerds worry about”), but most of those other problem issues stem from the fact that we have strayed from our country’s Judeo-Christian roots. We may choose to minimize, legitimize, and legalize immoral issues, but we will not have the power to choose or control the consequences that follow.
Your article seems to say what’s the big deal, what’s the harm in legalizing gay marriage? This issue is far more reaching than most understand. I would like to give one example of many I have read.
In Massachusetts (one of the states with legalized gay marriage) a judge recently made a disturbing ruling in my opinion.
David Parker was upset when his kindergarten son brought home a book depicting families headed by same-sex couples. “Parker acknowledged the equal rights of gays but objected to ‘the out of the closet and into the kindergarten classroom mentality.’ In essence, Parker highlighted the difference between tolerance, which acknowledges someone’s right to make a choice, and acceptance, which is the personal validation of that choice.” (Foxnews.com)
Parker requested his child’s school notify him when adults discuss homosexuality. At an April 27, 2005 meeting at the school, Parker refused to leave without an assurance that he would receive parental notification. Arrested for criminal trespassing, he spent the night in jail. Charges were later dropped.
The next year the same Massachusetts school presented the book King and King to second- grade students. This book is about homosexual romances and marriage. At this time Parker and some other parents brought a lawsuit against the school claiming they violated state law by indoctrinating their children about a lifestyle the parents teach is immoral. A few days after filing the lawsuit, Parker’s son was beaten up at school by eight-10 kids. If this had been a child with same-sex parents, the national news would have been all over this, and rightly so. But why didn’t an act of violence to this little boy receive media attention?
In 2007, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf dismissed Parker’s lawsuit. The judge concluded that even allowing Christians to withdraw their children from classes or portions of classes where the religious beliefs were being violated wasn’t a reasonable expectation. He opined, “An exodus from class when issues of homosexuality or same-sex marriage are to be discussed could send the message that gays, lesbians, and the children of same-sex parents are inferior and, therefore, have a damaging effect on those students.” (Judge Orders Gay Agenda Taught to Christian Children by Bob Unruh, 2/24/07, WIN)
Your article stated that there are some “. . . more likely to look backward for their values.” I am not against progress, but I do not see a lack of moral concern to be progress. I believe our founders’ belief in God and their respect of the Scriptures when establishing our governing documents are what made this country great. I am persuaded that a return to these basics is the only hope for our nation.
Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, wrote: “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.”
John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and second president of the United States, wrote, “(W)e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
When the vote was brought to the people, 31 states have refused to legalize gay marriage. Eight states have legalized it through their liberal judges or legislatures. As much as the liberal media, politicians, and Hollywood try to convince us otherwise, “everyone is not doing it.”
Marriage is not an institution that was invented by man that can be used for social experiments. Marriage is God’s plan. It is sacred and good within the parameters He gives in the Bible. If we do not look to our Creator and His Word for our values, we are headed down a road of destruction. If we let “every individual decide what is right in his/her own eyes” we will soon be a nation gone under.
Call me backward, uninformed, and even ignorant if you must. But I will unashamedly “vote against sin.”
Rebecca Quinn,
Iola, Kan.
