Letters: Gay rights and public opinion

Re “A faster track for gay rights,” News Analysis, May 21

Based on public opinion, a Republican pollster warns that his party is on the wrong side of the same-sex marriage issue. But some of us consider that the right or wrong side of an issue is not determined by public opinion.

Equating gay rights with civil rights is an oversimplification. Faith teaches us compassion for all people, including homosexuals, but this compassion is not commensurate with support for same-sex marriage.

For many religious people, when personal feelings collide with religious instruction, they dispense with religious instruction. The rest of us consider the prescriptions of our faith not to be optional.

Michael Kreutzer

Santa Ana

While acceptance of gay rights has increased, conservative Christianity has attempted to derail them at every turn. In so doing, it maligns beautiful groups of people who contribute to the American mosaic.

Furthermore, these Christians throw the Bible out the window by imposing their faulty interpretations of it. They refuse to get on board with the Jesus they claim to adore, who went out of his way to welcome the marginalized.

They bypass the church’s historical threefold understanding of marriage as remedy (for natural sexual desire), reproduction and relationship (love). Until recently, relationship was always considered the most important.

For once, conservative Christians ought to get on this fast track of social and moral change and not always be the reluctant caboose.

Douglas J. Miller

Santa Barbara

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