Editor: In reading Roland Bottiglieri’s letter about morality and religion (the Times, Feb. 2), it got me to thinking about the definitions of the words Roland used to characterize Sunday school religion, namely 1. Homophobia 2. Sexism 3. Racism 4. Slavery and 5. Stoning.
• What is homophobia? The root words in latin mean fear of sameness. Is God homophobic when He made people male and female?
• What about sexism? Is there a difference between male and female? Can differences be celebrated, enjoyed and be complementary to love and relationships like marriage?
• How do we define racism? Is it OK to acknowledge that every one of us is created a little bit different. That skin colour, body shapes, and generational gifting, culture and ancestry are positive things to be recognized.
• No religion as far as I can see endorses slavery. Everyone loves freedom. Yet the devil is always in the details such as our own greed, lust, selfishness, pornography, and evil actions which enslave more people today through human trafficking than ever before.
Mostly I see religious people like Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce trying to end slavery. Today many people of faith (myself included) are trying to end human trafficking.
• Finally, about stoning. Religious people wanted to stone a women who had been caught committing adultery (John 8, 7). Jesus didn’t like that kind of religion either. He said whoever is without sin should cast the first stone.
I think we do well not to throw too many stones at each other as well as listening well to what we really mean by our words, and speak the truth to each other in love. Thank you for making me think, Roland.
Helmut Boehm,
Langley
