[DomLuka] 4 a.m. ramblings

[lagomorph]

I was going to post this in the soapbox, but it feels sort of personal and somehow I thought here would be better.

 

My mother is from this town, and I still have family there and visit fairly regularly, so I'll sometimes take a look at the newspaper online to see what's going on. Usually there's something so absurdly conservative that you just laugh and say, "Oh, people are idiots." But then sometimes it's more than just harmless complaining, and that's when you folks get to hear about it. Anyway, I hadn't heard anything about this mess, but I can't say I'm surprised.

 

On Feb. 26, Jeff Falter, the minister at a Presbyterian church in Elkins, W.V., wrote a column for the local daily, the Inter-Mountain, supporting gay rights.

 

"Gay and lesbian Christians are no different than the rest of us," he wrote. "They deserve full equality in the church and in society, for they are my brothers and sisters, people for whom Christ died."

 

Last week the congregation voted 100-72 to fire him.

 

I've been reading a lot of yapping in the letters to the editor about whether he was "bound by the teachings of that particular religious franchise," and whether or not he was advocating homosexuality.

 

Like I said, I visit this town with some regularity. It's one of those small places where you can borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor, and boy scouts help little old ladies cross the street, and complete strangers will stop you in the grocery store and have 20 minute conversations with you about nothing. And apparently they can't stomach a little talk about tolerance. It always seems to be the places where supposedly everyone loves each other and will do anything to help each other out, where deep down they hate anyone who's different.

 

I don't know, I'm just disgusted.

 

 

Val

Edited June 5, 2005 by lagomorph

[Conner]

When I was a teenager, I gave my younger sister a hard time about dating a young man who was black. He was also my friend. It was really wierd. When I think back about that now, I have no idea why I felt that way or even how I got that way.

 

Two things about human belief systems - they don't have to be based on anything rational and they're extremely difficult to change.

 

If 14 people in Elkins have a change of heart, you would have a tie vote. So that's promising. Kudos to the minister, Jeff Falter, for having the courage to say something that could obviously have caused him his job. Mind you, I'm now wondering whether his replacement will set the community back 10 or 20 years on the subject of tolerence/acceptance.

 

On the other hand, I totally support fluoridation!

 

Hugs,

Conner