This is in response to a forwarded email I received recently from a family member. The last line is an all caps plea to save what they have left of the country. I'm not sure what's being taken from them:

I agree that the response that your friend received was rude considering the large number of people who still feel the way he does about gay people. While we've moved from outright bigotry within my lifetime to a large amount of societal pressure toward tolerance and acceptance at present, there are certainly many people in older generations who are bewildered by these changes and embrace the bigotries that were perfectly acceptable when they were younger.

Certainly ABC's response is not what was expected from a corporation, but that probably had more to do with the beliefs and personal experience of the person answering the letter than of the entire corporation. There's an excellent chance that the individual actually answering your friend's letter was gay himself and felt persecuted by people like your friend who use the Bible to preach against tolerance and acceptance. Your friend's views are bigoted against gay people in general, but he has a right as a consumer to demand what he wants from his television provider and to choose not to use their products in the future if they do not comply. That being said, his comment comparing a relationship between two consenting adults with a relationship between a woman and a dog was extremely offensive and may have caused the person from ABC who answered to decide to let off a little steam. Institutions like the American Family Association start a new a letter and email campaign almost daily against any corporation that supports gay people. I doubt this was the first angry and bigoted email the correspondent answered that day.

As for using the Bible as a crutch, there are many people like yourself who believe the Bible should be the final say on what is right and wrong. That's problematic for America, because our Constitution demands that the state make no law respecting the establishment of religion. We are left to our own logic and what we can work out in the legislature and the courts to determine the laws that govern our society. Thankfully, the majority of us agree that those laws should be fair to all, though that hasn't always been the case. I've grown to understand that there are many within the Christian faith who believe that we should tear down the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and begin an oligarchy ruled by religious doctrine, more akin to Iran than to present day America. I once assumed that everyone knew that it was better for all of us to embrace democracy and freedom, but I've even met a few people whom I had considered to be religious moderates who seek to establish laws based solely on religion. I hope they come to see the error of their ways, or at least not infect others with that way of thinking.

I'm certain you've heard the counterarguments against those who would argue that the Bible is the basis for bigotry against gays. While your friend is dead on about the prejudices of Paul, who didn't so much preach against homosexuality as much as describe it as a characteristic of a sinful people, your friend is very wrong indeed about what Jesus had to say about homosexuality. In no gospel does Jesus ever mention homosexuality. On the other hand, Jesus is quite clear that divorce is prohibited except in the case of adultery, and even then remarriage or sexual relations by either partner following the marriage are prohibited as further adultery. The old testament mentions homosexuality in Leviticus, which is the book that describes what is fit practice in the Jewish tribe for those who worship God. Circumcision is also demanded, as well as abstinence from consumption of certain animals, complete obedience to one's parents, and not to wear blended fabrics. Leviticus also makes a large point of steering every man clear of sexual relationships with his mother-in-law or daughters-in-law. I see no point in picking and choosing which of these demands be followed today. It's either all or nothing. We use the Bible to write all our laws, or else we depend on the system that we have.

Why have all these other prejudices fallen to the wayside but the prohibition by Leviticus against homosexuality lives on? I believe there are multiple reasons. Looked at from the point of view of the number of people affected by each edict, it's clear that the laws against things that affect everyone have been dropped, while the laws that affect only a few linger. Most of us who aren't allergic to it eat shellfish. Almost everyone wears blended fabric. Fewer and fewer people are circumcised these days, especially by the the traditional methods. While there is still a huge swath of people who won't eat pork, they're governed by a religion even more strict, more recent, and arguably more successful about converting followers than Christianity (I only say that because, while the numbers are similar, the people of Islam seem to be a lot louder about it). What does that leave? Homosexuals, those who tend so toward homosexuality that they are averse to heterosexual sex and have a high level of attraction to their own sex, are somewhat rare, perhaps less than ten or even five percent of the total population. The proscription against homosexuality affects those people most strongly, but because there are so few, the edict against them still llingers within the church.

There is another, much darker reason I believe that bigotry against homosexuality still exists today. I believe that throughout history a large number of people who experienced some level of attraction to the same sex found it mentally comforting to lie to themselves and to others and describe homosexual activity as disgusting, unnatural, and immoral, so as to avert any suspicion that they themselves had experienced those attractions. There are many examples of evangelical preachers and other social leaders who have railed against homosexuals, only to later have been found to have engaged in homosexual relationships. With the Bible's edict against homosexuality, it also seems to force those very people to embrace the bigotry found there to give them some external reason to be so obviously biased against it. Please don't get me wrong, I don't think that everyone who thinks that homosexuality is deviant is secretly a homosexual. I do think it's a motivating factor in some of the most vitriolic of those people, however. In their volume and vehemence they convince other religious people that the Bible makes a big deal out of homosexuality (more so than eating pork or failing to obey one's parents or divorce) and that Jesus spoke against it. Over time, the effect has been a division between people who just want everyone to get along and be treated fairly and people who believe that all homosexuals are deviants whose activities threaten the fabric of American life.

I'm sorry to have gone into such a long rant here, but this is an issue that Tina and I take very seriously. I have long tried to find some middle ground with the people against gay rights, but unlike most conservative/liberal arguments, I can find no merit to the arguments of the other side. I do not accept the argument that, "This should be the law because the Bible says so," as valid.

One final note, and I'm not sure you know this, but in the early and mid 1800s the Bible was used to justify slavery. As recently as 1980 I heard the argument preached from the pulpit that Africans (and African Americans) were the descendants of Ham and therefore inferior to white people. This isn't the first time and will not likely be the last time the Bible was used to wrongly malign a group of people.

The original email:

Jim Neugent A Coach In Mena , ARK

Writes To ABC Network

Jim Writes:

My name is Jim Neugent. I wrote to ABC (on-line) concerning a program called 'THE PRACTICE.' In last nights episode, one of the lawyer's mothers decided she is gay and wanted her son to go to court and help her get a marriage license so she could marry her 'partner.' I sent the following letter to ABC yesterday and really did not expect a reply, but I did get one.

My original message was:

ABC is obsessed with the subject of homosexuality. I will no longer watch any of your attempts to convince the world that homosexuality is OK. ' THE PRACTICE' can be a fairly good show, but last night's program was so typical of your agenda. You picked the 'dufus' of the office to be the one who was against the idea of his mother being gay, and made him look like a whiner because he had convictions. This type of mentality calls people like me a 'gay basher.'

Read the first chapter of Romans (that's in the Bible); and see what the apostle Paul had to say about it..... He, God and Jesus were all 'gay bashers'. What if she'd fallen in love with her cocker spaniel? Is that an alternative life style? (By the way, the Bible speaks against that, too.)

--Jim Neugent

Here is ABC's reply from the ABC on-line webmaster:

How about getting your nose out of the Bible (which is ONLY a book of stories compiled by MANY different writers hundreds of years ago) and read the declaration of independence (what our nation is built on), where it says 'All Men are Created equal,' and try treating them that way for a change!

Or better yet, try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as your lame crutch for your existence. You are in the minority in this country, and your boycott will not affect us at ABC or our freedom of statement.

Jim Neugent's second response to ABC:

Thanks for your reply. From your harsh reply, evidently I hit a nerve. I will share it with all with whom I come in contact. Hopefully, the Arkansas Democrat Newspaper will include it in one of their columns and I will be praying for you.

- -Jim Neugent- -

Note: Wouldn't Satan just love it if people stopped using the Bible for a crutch?

Please resend this to everyone in your mailbox.

Jim Neugent I wonder if the person from ABC considered how many people would eventually read this e-mail!

Please, if you are a Christian, pass this on to others so they may be aware. WE NEED TO SAVE WHAT WE HAVE LEFT OF THIS COUNTRY!