Religious Right and Male Dominance

As Ventura County pastors, we are concerned. We have recently heard leaders of the religious right emphasizing male dominance in the home and predicting terrible storms for the Orlando, Fla., (Disney World) area because the Disney Corp. (like many other corporations) gives medical benefits to the partners of homosexual employees.

Such statements fan the flames of hatred. Hate crimes such as the one in Texas do not spring from a vacuum. The religious extremists who emphasize isolated verses in the Bible that contradict the main themes of God’s love and justice are therefore a danger to our society.

Rather than fanning flames of hatred, we have to deal with the symptoms that exist: intolerance, ignorance and fear.

What Christ has taught us is to see the worth of every person, and we commit ourselves to affirm the dignity of every individual.

JIM BAIN, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Oxnard

AL GORSLINE, Pastor, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Oxnard

LARRY TYLER WAYMAN, Pastor, North Oxnard United Methodist Church and the Faith Connection

ANTHONY GUILLEN, Rector, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Oxnard