CENTRE DAILY TIMES

3-9-72

TO-THE EDITOR

Love isn’t About to Be Quelled

It is only wise and prudent to avail oneself of all the informational resources existent throughout history -- including the Bible. But to me, there is no greater misuse of the Bible than to make it our taskmaster, a body of writing to which we are enslaved.

Homosexuality is condemned in the Old Testament book of Leviticus (Lev. 20:13), along with the sins of adultery (Lev. 20:10), incest (Lev. 20:11-12), bestiality (Lev. 20:15-16), sorcery or witchcraft (Lev. 20:27), eating such foods as rabbit (Lev. 11:6), oysters, clams, shrimp, 1obster (Lev. 11:10-12), or steak too rare (Lev. 17:10).

The same book in the Bible also prohibits men from becoming priests if they are blind, lame, humpbacked, short or flatnosed (Lev. 21:17-24).

I can see no validity whatsoever to the claim that something written two or three thousand years ago has any special relevance to my way of living and thinking today.

What if we have been misinterpreting the Sodom story? I don’t care whether it condemns homosexuality or heterosexuality or sexuality, or whatever. Nor do I care what Paul condemns or condones. I have no basis for presuming that these writers had any better access to God than does, say, Mrs. James Spencer or Thomas Ballenger, et al.

To many people, the most shocking thing about homosexuality is that it is about love. (This is the most shocking thing about Christianity, too.) It seems that some people just aren’t ready for either.

But watch out. A few decades ago, when the Kinsey Reports established that 37 per cent of all American males had had a homosexual experience, homosexuality was still “The love that dared not speak its name.” But now, since the last decade, in harmony with the heralds of the Gay Liberation movements throughout the world, that love is not about to shut up.

GENE FEDORKO

State College