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Stop the haranguing

Valley forum

This is in response to the Feb. 5, Index-Tribune editorial, “Brave step by Boy Scouts.”

  To comment on the newsworthiness of the latest Boy Scouts of America decision to reverse its ban on gay membership is one thing, but to spend three-quarters of an editorial page article blasting any and all who might disagree with this chosen lifestyle as fearful, superstitious and “ignorant,” and placing them in the same camp with those who practice everything from “cannibalism” to “eating shark fins” is really over-the-top – even for The Sonoma Index-Tribune.

  Could it be that your overarching engagement with the broader issue is purposed to try and retain a likable readership in a declining industry by pushing what Hollywood, Washington and the national media want all to believe is the only way to address this issue – by blasting any and all who might disagree with your published position?

  You do know, don’t you, that there are legitimate, differing opinions to yours? Let me help you by pointing out two additional “practices and beliefs” that should be on your list of those things which have roots in “human fear, superstition, and ignorance.”

  1. Those who do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle do not always have “attitudes” that cause us to “punish, ban, deny, persecute and reject.” This is a huge misnomer on behalf of all who are quick to throw around such labels. To disagree is not always to be disagreeable. As a pastor, I am called to love and bless all whom I come in contact with – regardless of who they are. I will, if asked and/or if the opportunity presents itself, passionately share God’s position from His holy word because I simply do not want a single person kept away from the eternal presence of God.

  2. Another item for your list of practices and beliefs which we should outgrow is that for people of faith, ours are not “old, false beliefs,” and I, as a practitioner, take offence that you would be so crass as to label them as such. My belief is based on the truth of the word of God, which will stand long after you and the national media find the error of your ways – at a time when truth will, once again, return to this earth in power and glory. Giving legitimacy to an already aggressive gay agenda, by openly ridiculing people of faith who differ from that bully platform of yours, can only increase the same divisiveness in our country that you are trying to decry. 

  Seems to me that The Sonoma Index-Tribune, and its editorial board, can either present a bit of a broader perspective with less haranguing on some of the issues it chooses to speak to that have other, legitimate viewpoints, or they can continue down the slope to ultimate oblivion, here in this “disparate pocket of human civilization” called Sonoma Valley. The choice is yours. 

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  Jim Hill is pastor of the Glen Ellen Community Church.