Holly Deimerly’s July 1 article “Views of homosexuals vary among Christian churches” had several misconceptions in it. As a Christian, it is my duty to correct misconceptions regarding issues of the law.

The first misconception is a biblical citation error made by Jeff Sorenson. Sorenson states that “In Samuel 1:18 …” but does not make the distinction between which of the two Samuels he is citing.

Upon further investigation, it is 2 Samuel 1:18, and even further investigation of New International Version Study Bible footnotes of 1 Samuel 18:1 it states, “It appears that David spoke with Saul at length, and he may have explained his actions as an expression of his faith in the Lord, thus attracting the love and loyalty of Jonathan (see v 3; 14:6; 19:5). Their friendship endured even when it became clear that David was to replace him as the successor to his father’s throne.”

As you can see, they are merely friends and not lovers.

I am in agreement with Matt Russell that being gay is not biblically wrong; it’s the act of homosexuality that the Bible condemns. However, the statement, “God may even create people who are gay,” is another misconception. God gave us free will, and it is with that free will that Adam and Eve decided to fall away from God and cause sin to come into the world. The result of their decision to sin is the sinful world in which we live, where people can decide to do whatever they want to do with their sexuality.

God gave people the choice to do what they want with the bodies he gave them — to pin your sins on God is not only an unfair way to try to distance yourself from your sins, it’s just plain wrong.

Another disagreement I have with Sorenson is his quote, “The Bible is thousands of years old and has been written and rewritten by man …” It is this ignorance with which many people attack the Bible’s historical credibility. According to Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks in their book “When Skeptics Ask,” the accuracy of the Bible as we know it today is incredible. Regarding the Old Testament, “The manuscripts … agree to a great extent. Such agreement from texts that come from Palestine, Syria and Egypt suggests that they have a strong original tradition from way back in history.”

One final note is that there shouldn’t be varying views on any issues, including homosexuality, in the Bible. To say that meaning is subjective is a violation of the law of non-contradiction. The law of non-contradiction simply states that A cannot be both A and not A at the same time. In other words, homosexuality can be both sin and not sin at the same time. One does not need to study hermeneutics to find out that the Bible does not support the act of homosexuality. Also, to make the claim, “Meaning is subjective,” begs the question, “Is that claim subjective?”

Mark Herman

Sophomore

History