Your headline of June 30, 2011, “Same-sex marriage undermines families” caught my attention.
I see it was a feed from Catholic News Service. I’ve read the article three times looking for NEW and/or factual information to help me more thoroughly understand the issues involved in this hot subject. Much to my dismay all I could find were more inflammatory statements. The logic presented here would have me selling apples on the street corner if I used such structures in getting capital expenditures approved in my present job.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio’s quote “Yet the governor and the state Legislature have demonized people of faith, whether they be Muslims, Jews or Christians, and identified them as bigots and prejudiced” begs for some example of actions taken; I read little. Therefore I must assume passage of a law that says the state grants certain CIVIL privileges to all its citizens is somehow demonizing me. In my past work I spent almost 20 years having daily interactions with people that I knew were gay/lesbian at a large U.S. company engaged in products for personal expression. Not once did I feel endangered, threatened, demonized or have any other fear. To the contrary I found them to be just as caring, responsible, etc., as anyone else. That was almost 20 years ago!
Then I read Father Richard McBrien’s column and, sadly, must agree with some of his points. Also, recall a letter from another reader saying that being respectful of others’ rights actually strengthens our own. He goes on to say, “After all, loving our neighbor as a manifestation of loving God is a central theme of Jesus’ Gospel message.”
I recall my mother saying, “Sweep your own front porch before you worry about the dirt on someone else’s.”
Larry Luebbert
Iowa City
