To the Editor:
I'd like to respond to some of the comments in yesterday's article about the speaker, Yvette Schneider. I was struck by Jonathan Hollander's assumption in his quote that Mrs. Schneider is coming to tell homosexuals that they are inferior and morally corrupt. To the best of my knowledge, Mrs. Schneider is coming to share her personal journey from a homosexual lifestyle to a heterosexual lifestyle and the role her faith as a Christian played in that journey.
I am a Christian and I believe that in order to put my faith in one part of the Bible it follows I must accept the whole thing including the verses in I Corinthians and Romans where it says that a homosexual act is a sin (1 Cor. 6:9-11, Rom., 1:26-27). Other Christians of course have differing opinions or interpretations. But I would like to adamantly assert in defense of my faith that nowhere in the Bible does God say that homosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals.
The whole premise of Christianity, at least as I see it in the Bible, is that everyone is morally corrupt and desperately in need of forgiveness. The verse in I Corinthians lists a homosexual act next to stealing and greed. This says to me that none of these sins is any worse or better in the mind of God. Undoubtedly I am offending people left and right now because the very idea that something we believe in or like doing or even identify with might possibly be wrong is offensive in and of itself. But is it inconceivable to listen to a viewpoint that might be offensive in and of itself, although the presenters of the viewpoint aren't themselves trying to be offensive? Must we reject it simply because it doesn't make us feel good about ourselves, or will we actually give it a moment of serious consideration? There's a lot of talk going around about being open-minded and to me that means being willing to listen respectfully to a viewpoint that doesn't match-up nicely with my own. It does not mean that at the end of it all we will or should see eye to eye.
I cannot predict what Mrs. Schneider is going to say and perhaps she will prove Jonathan Hollander right. But I hope that everyone will take this opportunity to come and see for themselves.