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Editor:
I would like to direct this comment in response to Mr. Anthony Ashley's staff comment ("Come out, come out - wherever you are," Oct. 11). Just once in my lifetime, I would like to hear a gay person say that there are gays without trashing Christians and shredding their belief system by making statements such as the Bible is a 2,000-year-old book which has been changed completely from cover to cover many times over those years. Mr. Ashley, if you want to be gay, then be gay and be done with it. How dare you make an obvious blanket statement toward the Bible's invalidity to support your views. Does it make you feel better to justify your lifestyle by shredding the integrity of a religious document? Can't you say what you want without doing that? How do you know that the Bible is invalid; have you ever read it for yourself and researched its truths?
In addition, you sarcastically commented on the ad run in that same Wildcat featuring a former lesbian by stating, "look for an ad featuring a 'former lesbian' touting that Jesus can save you from this life of deviancy." Mr. Ashley, you know very well that the woman in the ad stated nothing about "deviancy," but rather plainly stated her realization that she "paired up with other women out of emotional dependency rather than true love." So what is it to you if she found healing through a relationship with Jesus Christ? Just because she once engaged in a lesbian lifestyle doesn't mean she has to remain in it forever does it? Doesn't she have the choice to leave it if she wishes? It is arrogant to assume that everyone in a gay lifestyle wants to remain it.
It seems Mr. Ashley that you want your views to be treated with respect, but you do not deliver respect in kind to those who differ from you. In disparaging those who hold views different from yours, you say more about yourself than you do about those whom you disparage. Is this the kind of message you want to convey; "It's okay for me to put you down but not for you to disagree with me?"
So, Mr. Ashley, stop and think before ripping up another religious group, and stop listening to right wing Christian "bullies" whose only desire is to thump a Bible on your head. Listen instead to those who live what they believe. The message of the Gospel stands on its own integrity and has the power to convict people of their sins and the need for repentance and salvation without the sensationalism of head-thumping television evangelism and right wing party politics.
Marianne B. Strnad
pre-medical technology senior
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