Responding to Al Williams’ “Soundoff” on Feb. 18:
“Gay marriage” is not about gay marriage. It’s about marriage. Percentages are irrelevant. Marriage is about people, not statistics. The issue is about ethics and equality of law not justification by behavior found in the “animal world.” Most people groups speak of a fall from grace, a paradise lost, and a curse upon both man and nature. Neither is now truly “natural.”
Also, divine and human laws have often been modified and ultimate demands satisfied. Additionally, one day the laws of nature and the laws of nature’s God will also be changed. Jefferson, appealing to the laws of nature and of nature’s God, established the rights of nations yet derived the unalienable rights of men directly from the creator, to whom even the laws of nature and the laws of nature’s God are subject.
You state: “It isn’t a choice … it’s determined by genetic specificity … environmental experiences.”
An emerging epigenetic energetic paradigm suggest otherwise. People who gain moral validation from a form of genetic determinism do well to reconsider. Biology is not what we thought (Drs. Jablonka and Lamb, Dawson Church, Ph.D, Lars Olov Bygren, Ph.D. and Bruce Lipton, MD). Good news to a family with Parkinson’s but not to a person who bases homosexuality on “I was born this way.” If I can genetically determine a baby is gay then I can “cure” the world of homosexuals or abort homosexual babies as with Down syndrome babies or Chinese females. Thus, rights are properly rooted in the unchanging creator alone.
Paul, Jesus and Christians:
People follow Jesus by independent choice. Historical orthodoxy exposes error, plumbs truth and challenges “new” theology. Paul met Jesus personally on the Damascus Road and his authority came from what he did. The character of God was manifest through Paul with signs and the wonders authenticating the message. Even first century sorcerers knew the apostles were dealing with a power they had never seen before. Paul’s was less stringent than Jesus, to whom calling a brother a fool was hell worthy.
We are all sinners. Christendom addresses sin as Jesus did with the adulteress. Redemptive grace, compassion, love are found in Christ and the Church. To call something sin is not rejecting the sinner. Scripture calls out sin, yet sinners are loved only if access to grace is left open and conscience freely exercised.
We must treat sinners gracefully. The homosexual community has done this toward the heterosexual culture despite our poor treatment of its members.
Under the law, people should be treated equally, under God, as conscience dictates. A civil union or marriage by a state agent or agency is equal treatment under the law. The right of clergy to refuse to marry is an exercise of their own equal treatment under law and conscience. The state protects both access and conscience.
Muslim mullahs may decline marrying Jews and Christian ministers homosexuals. Rites and sacraments belong to the specific community. Those seeking recognition via the sacraments of another group cannot do so on the basis of their terms but by the terms of the group being approached.
This protects conscience. The state, garnering existence from the consent of the governed, does this in reverse because it reflects those it has gained consent from. This protects access. E Pluribus Unum.
Scott Scrimshaw
lives in Oak Harbor
