A voice of reason

Straighten up and gain some tolerance
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
11/24/08

Joe Sergio's Nov. 13 letter scolds Nancy Mascotte for her mantra of "intolerance" which was not directed toward the whole South Bend community, as Sergio indicates, but toward those citizens who do discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transvestite people.

In fact, his organization, Citizens for Community Values, has used deceptive language to cloud the issue of our citizens' human rights in South Bend. Its members sanitize the word "discrimination" and turn it into a catchy, duplicitous phrase: "no special rights."

Some citizens, I believe strongly, are not only intolerant of GLBTs, but acting unChrist-like. While on this Earth, Jesus chose to serve the poor, the outcasts and the marginalized in his Jewish society. Jesus never uttered a word of condemnation about homosexuality. We can presume that if gays were present and marginalized, they were a part of his community.

In our own times, gay people have come out of the closet into which most societies put them for centuries. Recent scientific studies find that, for a true homosexual, sexual orientation was not chosen by them but given to them by nature (and God?). I know that I did not choose my own heterosexuality.

I consider myself as a "straight for equality." Doing what is right can be simple. Easy. Straightforward.

Rev. Edward J. Ruetz
South Bend