Dear Editor:
Love, acceptance and forgiveness are characteristics we should all embrace. Nobody is denying the positive nature of last week’s letter, but there are some assertions within the reasoning of the author that I would like to address.
Among these assertions are that Christianity has been somewhat of a metaphorical moral compass for our nation, homosexuality and drug use are inherently wrong, and that separation of church and state has a negative impact on our society.
First of all, I would argue that it has been many years since Christians have held a “moral authority” in the United States, and that Christianity has been more of a drain on the moral fabric of society than a positive influence.
Indians were called godless heathens and massacred. Black people were said to have the mark of Kane and put to work as slaves. Our government is even today telling us that people of another religion are our enemies because their particular religion makes them hate us.
How many times do we have to have this same conversation?
I can’t help but think that when individuals believe in the inherent evil of another culture they are sorely mistaken, and by default that is what Christianity teaches; we are bound for heaven while they are bound for hell. Religion, when analyzed both empirically and at a macro scale, is a tool of divisiveness and dehumanization rather than togetherness and equality.
Second, homosexuality and drug use are both completely compatible with living a decent and moral life. The vocabulary word for the day is consent.
As long as each individual is willing to deal with the consequences of his or her own actions and gives fully-informed consent, there is nothing inherently evil going on.
Drugs themselves are not evil. Though you may point to the number of drug users who commit other crimes, I would remind you that correlation does not imply causation.
Just like with priests in the Catholic Church who molested little boys, it is not that being catholic makes you like molest boys, it is just a correlation.
The last assertion that I would like to address is that the author implied separation of church and state was a bad idea. I’m not sure that anyone who is familiar with the historical context in which America was colonized would make the argument against separation of church and state. If religion was to dictate legislation, virtually every one of the people reading this paper would be thrown in jail for some crime or another. The bible, among other things, outlaws mixing cotton with linen, working on Sundays and touching pig skin. In fact, anyone who ever threw a football would be put in jail if we were to take religious law seriously.
I’m not saying the author of last week’s letter was trying to intentionally mislead anyone here, and I believe what he said came straight from the heart, but I don’t agree with his line of reasoning.
It seemed more that he was preaching silent hate rather than open acceptance, and I wanted to point out a few reasons why that particular message is not the message of love, acceptance and forgiveness that we want at Troy University. Rather, we should instruct our moral compass by way of universal human empathy.
Bradley McGlawn, senior Computer Science major from Calera
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