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Mailbag: Many laws have moral, religious precept

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In the Aug. 7 editorial “Some traditions deserve to die,” the Burbank Leader chided the California electorate for the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008. The editorial went on to castigate the public generally for moral and religious views that have been used to “justify what everyone now considers to be hurtful, discriminatory means of subjugation.”

I would respectfully like to point out that our very existence as a nation is based upon moral and religious grounds. The founders of this great nation fled a country that would not allow them to exercise religious freedom. Likewise, many of our criminal and civil laws have their roots in moral and religious principles.

So, let’s be honest here and admit that much of what we hold today in our laws and customs has some sort of religious or moral precept.

Without entering into to the debate on the appropriateness of same sex marriages, let me just say that the issue provides a slippery slope. If we decide that same sex marriages are to be condoned, we may well be opening the door to other views of marriage.

For example, in some societies, it is appropriate for a man to have more than one wife. Perhaps we should embrace this concept as a part of our modern and enlightened view of the institution of marriage. Perhaps too, we should allow brothers and sisters to marry, or maybe brothers and brothers, as well as sisters and sisters.

We also have taboos on the age of consent for marriage. Perhaps those too should be removed so that children can marry.

I realize that I am offering some absurd examples in a contemporary sense, but I am doing so to point out the risk to be assumed for simply discarding the traditions of the institution of marriage. Since it is an institution that I have enjoyed for nearly half a century, I would like to see its principles and values continued and not diluted under the guise of modernism, or simply in the eyes of the editorial, a “faded tradition.”

Robert B. Taylor

La Crescenta

Reverend shouldn’t force beliefs on others

The letter from the Rev. Bryan Griem (“So-called Christians should read manual,” Aug. 25) reminds of the comment “Just because I am paranoid, doesn’t mean that people aren’t really after me.”

Why are you making this into an “Us vs. Them” situation? The Crusades were fought many long years ago, and they weren’t pretty. In this country, which runs on the notion of separation of church and state, you are free to practice your religion, and those of us who disagree with you are free to live according to our moral and spiritual code as long as we don’t infringe upon the rights of others.

I am somewhat disturbed by your “obligation to champion” and your invitation to Patrick Caneday to “pick up your spiritual armor and join us in the war.”

I am not “at war” with you, as long as you do not try to force your beliefs on me and make me live under your, or as you would say, Christ’s laws. Isn’t that what the Taliban is trying to do?

Nancy Greene

Glendale

Griem comments are getting tiresome

My morning routine never varies. I plug in the coffee maker, slip a bagel into the toaster and bring in the morning newspaper from my driveway. A perfect, sunny California morning. It doesn’t get any better than this.

I can hardly wait to get to the Glendale News-Press, and then I see it. A very long letter signed by the Rev. Bryan Griem (“So-called Christians should read manual,” Aug. 25), so filled with brimstone that I can actually smell smoke.

My coffee goes cold. The bagel suddenly goes limp. Just another hateful, hurtful, disturbing, homophobic rant from the sinister minister Rev. Bryan Griem of Montrose.

However, this morning I find out I will not be going to heaven. At least not the heaven the good Rev. Griem envisions for himself and his flock. Rest assured dear reverend, I am relieved to hear this news.

It would be like sharing my heavenly cloud with the likes of Jerry Fallwell and Anita Bryant. Your letters grow tiresome, Rev. Griem, like chains around my feet, not to mention the hearts of the millions you find so unworthy.

Perhaps it is time for the News-Press to reevaluate and reconsider using the commentaries of the Griem.

David Gubser

Glendale

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