Here We Go Again

I consider that often the prophetic edges of my ministry are expressed through letters to the editor of our various area newspapers.


For instance, here's a letter in one of my local papers, The Saginaw News, to which I responded:

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1201879245137840.xml&coll=9

Homosexual lobby
Editor, The News:

Had enough of ''homosexual deathstyle?'' Anyone who practices a style of living that eventually will kill them in the short or long run is living a ''deathstyle.'' This includes smokers, drug addicts and alcoholics.

I am an ex-smoker, so I know what I am talking about. I smoked off and on for 25 years and finally went cold turkey a little over a year ago and am now smoke-free.

Compared to homosexuals, smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts don't run around looking for special rights from the government to protect them. Homosexuality is not a human rights issue. It is a choice that people make to be homosexual, just as it was a choice I made to smoke, and a choice people make to drink to excess or abuse drugs.

Alcoholics can get help through ''Alcoholics Anonymous.'' There are numerous drug rehab and smoking cessation medications available. Many medical professionals consider alcoholism and drug addiction a disease. If these two deathstyles are considered a disease, why isn't homosexuality? Why would this deathstyle that caused the most devastating disease, AIDS, this country ever has seen be accepted as commonplace?

Today we have Hollywood glorifying homosexuality. Our schools are accepting homosexuality and teaching it as a viable alternative lifestyle, and now we have politicians proposing a protected status for a lifestyle that is killing people.

The question is, why would anyone support the deathstyle of someone they love? Do you really love them if you do? Should a moral society have to accept this or be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for opposing it? I think not. Don't be taken in by the lies and half truths perpetuated by the homosexual lobby.


Name and location omitted.


Here's my response:


http://www.mlive.com/saginaw/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/12028296089000.xml&coll=9


Idea laughable

Editor, The News:

I read the Feb. 1 diatribe against homosexual persons with a mixture of amusement and anger.


Amusement because all of the gay and lesbian folks I know who have lived into their 60s, 70s and 80s -- many of them in long-term monogamous relationships of 20, 30, 40 years standing -- would laugh at his idea that homosexuality is more of a ''deathstyle'' than heterosexuality.
I have never met the writer, but I strongly suspect that my long-term monogamous relationship with my same-sex partner isn't any more a ''deathstyle'' than any relationship he has had or has with a significant other. Risky, unprotected sexual behaviors with multiple, unfamiliar partners or the sharing of needles is dangerous for straight people as well as gay people. I do not engage in those behaviors, and neither do most of the lesbian or gay people I know.


Anger, because the single most significant risk factor that homosexual persons face is the type of bigotry and misinformation that the writer and people who share his views espouse. According to the FBI, of the 653 hate crimes committed in Michigan in 2006, 52 were motivated by the perpetrator's perception of the victim's sexual orientation. (Of course, those are only the ones that were reported.)

Some people believe the lies, myths and stereotypes that misinformed people spread, and then feel justified in attacking those whom they perceive ''fit'' those stereotypes. Others will feel justified lobbying against the civil rights of homosexual persons, denying them employment protections and other rights that most U.S. citizens take for granted. Then, folks like the writer have the audacity to claim that gays and lesbians are seeking special rights.

Thanks for the opportunity to counter lies, myths and stereotypes.


Name and location omitted, although if you're reading this and paid attention to my profile, you know who I am.


Next, here's a counter-letter:


Political correctness?

Editor, The News:

In a Feb. 12 letter a person identifying herself as a clergy person also states she is a lesbian. She accuses some opposing her sexual preference as being liars.

Jesus tells those who judge another's speck when they themselves have a log: ''Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam (log) out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote (speck) out of thy brother's eye,'' Matthew 7:5.

What is the writer, a clergy person, preaching and teaching as being God's word? Evidently she is teaching ''political correctness,'' not God's word.

The Bible is God's infallible word and blueprint on what to teach, to believe and to live by. Jesus often quoted from the Scriptures and declared them to be the infallible word of God.

The lifestyle of homosexuality is condemned throughout Scriptures (Leviticus 18:22-24, 26, 28-29; 20:13,14-16; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Timothy 1:9-10). In listing sinful lifestyles, including homosexuality, the apostle states that such persons ''shall not enter the kingdom of God'' and adds: ''Be not deceived.''

After creating Adam, God created Eve, a woman, for the man. Of such God-ordained unions, the apostle writes: ''Marriage is honorable in (among) all, and the bed undefiled: But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,'' Hebrews 13:4.

Thus, as taught in Scripture and in churches through the centuries, though some strayed, especially in recent years, all of us who engage in sex outside of the marriage bond and all of us who practice homosexuality need to ponder this: Does the clay, over time, become wiser than its molder and maker?

There's a couple of different tactics I'm considering for my response --when I compose it, I'll conclude it on my blog, but in the meantime, I certainly welcome your thoughts, O dear readers, all four or five of you.