DEAR EDITOR:
In response to James Fennell: I applaud the moral absolutists of
Gilroy! Your passion for Christianity, God, and the Ten
Commandments fills your written pages in The Dispatch with an
energy that borders, however, on fanaticism.
DEAR EDITOR:
In response to James Fennell: I applaud the moral absolutists of Gilroy! Your passion for Christianity, God, and the Ten Commandments fills your written pages in The Dispatch with an energy that borders, however, on fanaticism.
You create the impression that you, and your like brethren, are exist on a higher moral platform those who have a different world vision. This astounds my logic, my reason, and my 12 years of Catholic education.
To state that “moral relativism” is wrong is simply a myth. Not even the Bible or Christian leaders hold an act to be wrong in and of itself. The scriptures are full of exceptions and qualifications to the law (Divine Law). For example, God gave Israel the Ten Commandments forbidding certain acts. But then He also ordered Israel to carry out those very acts (murder) against her enemies.
Slavery and war were not condemned as evil “in and of themselves.” Christian scholars and Popes wrote entire libraries on what constituted “just and unjust slavery” and “just and unjust war.”
Mr. Fennel states that The Ten Commandments are ABSOLUTE (not suggestions for behavior). This is NOT a fact of Christianity. For example, the Sixth Commandment states, “You shall not kill.” But in the Bible, under Levitical law, there were three occasions given where killing was permissible: in self-defense, in times of war, and in the commission of justice.
In closing my 12 years of Catholic school upbringing taught me that our God was good, kind, caring,and loving. He sent his only son to us to atone for our sins. Jesus walked among people as a role model of the highest moral and ethical behavior. When he died his final words were not mean, hateful, or condemning. He quietly uttered, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
This is America, a country founded by people who sought to get away from religious oppression. People of America can choose whatever religion they want: Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Baptist, Buddhist, Muslim, Islam, Jewish, etc. When we, the people of America, are forced to believe in only the Christian Fundamental brand of faith, will be living no differently than the people of Afghanistan lived under the Taliban Fundamentalist rule. Whatever the religion, a fundamentalist is a fundamentalist is a fundamentalist.
Kristine Dillon, Gilroy
Submitted Monday, Nov. 18 to ed****@ga****.com
