We ve always had a hard time with it. Our country has done well at times and bad at times, and each generation has had to confront people who are different, whether it was blacks, immigrants. At the Salem witch trials people of different faith we ve struggled with it, we ve failed at times, and then we ve moved forward as a more tolerant country. I see that as the core of this issue. Gay people are different.
Some people are uncomfortable.
We re a small minority in the country, easy to pick on, and it does charge up certain people in the country to pick on us. And I think that that s the way that we need to deal with this issue as well. That s correct. First of all, theologians disagree, and we obviously disagree with Rep. Largent, who really does spout really the views of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. The fact is, is that in a world full of divorce and adultery and in a country where we haven t adequately figured out how to care for the sick, the poor, the dying, our children, how we can take care of all of our community, it is curious this obsessiveness with one sin that didn t even make it into the top ten the so-called sin of homosexuality, a characterization with which we do not agree didn t even make it into the top ten and about which Jesus didn t utter one word the central message of the scriptures is about love.