Letters
mend you for the wonderful work you are doing and trying to do. God bless you and He will make it possible through all of our prayers and faith to continue and enlarge your good work.
Mrs. S.
Kansas City, Mo.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE EDITORS FORWARD LETTERS FROM READERS TO OTHER PERSONS NOR DO THEY ANSWER CORRESPONDENCE MAKING SUCH REQUESTS.
RELIGION, SI! RELIGION, NO! Dear Mr. Slater:
Your 1960 Christmas issue devoted to the subject of religion was of such interest to me, although it raised more questions than it settled, that I have wondered if you were going to have another similar issue this year.
To the homosexual religion offers on the one hand comfort and solace and on the other threats and rejection. What a paradox! Some dictionaries define it in terms of taboo and retraints. Others, while admitting that origins of the term as we now have it are lost in the mists of antiquity, refer to the Latin ligio, from which we also have the word ligament, and indicate that it implies binding, or a bond.
Is this why religionists approach the subject from such radically different angles? Some view it as the linking of men to the highest concepts of which the race is capable. Others emphasize the aspect of binding and see religion primarily in terms of restraint and repression, particularly of others than themselves. Small wonder then that it should be found a topic worthy of the most savage mockery by some and barely worthy of even the contempt of honorable persons.
Dear ONE:
Mr. K. Brookline, Mass.
I am enclosing an article about homosexuality by Billy Graham that appeard in a paper here. It not only horrified me but made me heartsick. Were you to print it I am sure it would arouse the anger in many an interested person, just as it did in me.
To have such absolutely ridiculous, untrue statements made by such a big man who is supposed to be so smart, worldly wise and above reproach in the eyes of many made me very much want to do something about it, so my thoughts naturally turned to ONE.
The real sin, in my estimation, is the fact that such nonsense was made public. I eagerly read my son's ONE Magazine and again com-
To the Editor:
The ordinary presumption is that the church is the enemy of the homosexual. If this is true, the church has become less than Christ-like through its near two thousand years of existence. It would be hard to find any instance in the canon of the New Testament to prove that the Founder of the Christian Religion was an enemy of the homosexual. If anything can be deduced from the speeches and acts of Jesus it would be that the homosexual has in fact a friend in Jesus Christ.
Does it hurt us to admit that we are sinners? Even heterosexuals are sinners. If you do not want to admit to sin how can you find any meaning in any religion? At the bottom of all acts of all known religions is that of sacrifice. Every religion has the dogma that sacrifice must be made to Diety for sins.
Homosexuals frequently refer to the great loves of man in the Bible and relate them to their own love affairs. There is hardly any relationship. If you read with care the writings of the Churchmen you must become aware of the fact that sexuality has not any place in the life of the man who wants to become a saint.
Marriage is a holy surrender of one's body to one's beloved in much the same way that the soul surrenders to God all of its rights and privileges. The second object of matrimony is the propagation of the human race. Note please that it is the second object of matrimony.
Perhaps the real reason for antagonism on the part of the homosexual towards the church. lies in the fact that he actually means to find some excuse or justification for this promiscuity. How many homosexual love affairs are really love affairs and how many of them are really sexual affairs? Love is a spiritual want. of every person, but how he satisfies his sexual wants and needs makes all the difference in terms of the Christian religion.
Dear Mr. Slater:
Mr. S. East Orange, N. J.
I have long been aware that the views of religious men have little to offer of value to us, either officially or in private. Voltaire spent his life in militant and brilliant conflict with both the law and the "bible gangs" of his time and in doing so persuaded an entire civilized country to get excited about individual liberties. These ideas were funnelled directly own Declaration of Independence,
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