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Columnist misguided

To the editor,

The simple way to discredit a message is by attacking the messenger.

Luckily for Zack Armstrong, the local bible-thumpers did his job for him by self-destructing. However, many of their methods stink of intolerance and hate, Armstrong's dismissal of the preachers as "incredibly stupid" only allows him and the reader to nimbly avoid the real issue posed by this episode - is masturbation and fornication immoral?

Luckily, Armstrong does not completely avoid the question. By accusing the preachers of hypocrisy, he only highlights his own confusion on the matter. This attack is his admission, albeit unconscious, that masturbation might be wrong. Why attack another for something you consider to be proper behavior? You don't.

Not stopping with simple hypocrisy attacks, Armstrong moves on to their "slandering" of campus individuals. Slander only occurs when the accused are innocent, as the preachers are. By indicting them on charges of not "caring" about the student population, Armstrong becomes the hypocrite, he becomes the slanderer. It is unfair and unwise to judge the internal emotions of those who are different than yourself, especially in such a callous dismissive manner.

Armstrong is a careless spectator - watching a house burn to the ground, commenting on it, deriding the owners, and never realizing that it is his own. When you realize you are homeless, don't blame the fire, blame yourself.

Nathan Wildermuth

Prospective student