CHICAGO — Karen Edwards wrote a letter printed Jan. 2, in response to the Dec. 3 “Ethics” column “about the woman who doesn’t agree with her niece’s choice of college and future career path.” Edwards wants balance for her “biblical” view about homosexuality. Would she also want you to give a Neo-Nazi “balance” if you printed something positive about Jews or African-Americans? I doubt it. There is a standard of right and wrong in our society that says anti-Semitism and racism is wrong.
I don’t accept that people who condemn gays and lesbians “because of what the Bible says” are acting in good faith. I am told that the Bible says it is wrong for a woman to wear a red dress, as one example of many biblical pronouncements that we do we not accept as guidelines for how to live today.
Fair-minded people who know gay and lesbian people know that they are not evil and that their being true to their sexual orientation is not wrong. There have been interpretations of the meaning of the apparent biblical proscriptions against homosexuality — which was not written in English — that explain these in the context of the time period in which they were written. One interpretation is that the proscription was against male temple prostitutes, and that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is a “turning over” of the norms of hospitality — taking people in as guests and then attacking them — rather than the “sin” of homosexuality.
In my view, people who condemn homosexuality because of the Bible are using the Bible as a cover-up for their fear and hatred of gay people. It is because they don’t like gay people. And that is wrong and need not be given “equal time” in a public institution such as the Chicago Tribune.
— Mark S.
