Writer needs to brush up on definition of evil

I have been accused of atrocities. So, too, has my partner, Molly.

It’s curious that I didn’t feel more incensed. When I first read a letter to the editor published in The Spokesman-Review claiming “The Bible places homosexuals on the same level as murderers, thieves and adulterers,” I folded up the page and went about fixing dinner.

The guy who penned the letter could be seen as an extremist and not to be fretted about. But a letter just above his, with incredibly similar verbiage, defied that notion.

More accurately, my ho-hum response may have been because I am numb from hearing similarly disparaging descriptions over and over again. That, folks, is frightening. Which is why a few days later, I began to dig deeper.

Within the letter, the writer pointed to I Corinthians 6 and Galatians 5 as the source of his pronouncements. Curious, I pulled my New International Version Bible off the shelf. The list in I Corinthians 6 of the “wicked [who] will not inherit the kingdom of God” includes idolaters, male prostitutes, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers, among the others mentioned in the letter. BUT WAIT, murderers are not in that list.

A similar list of “acts of the sinful nature” in Galatians 5 also does not point to murderers, and, interestingly, does not specifically point to “homosexual offenders” like I Corinthians does.

Now I’m pissed. Where does this guy get off calling me the equivalent of a murderer?

The second frightening thing about this whole scenario, I could probably be at a dinner party with this letter writer and not have a clue about his feelings. He probably loves his family, likes to go the movies, is irritated by the price of gas, works in his yard just like I do.

I bet he bought the Finding Nemo DVD for his kids or grandkids, maybe even faithfully watches Grey’s Anatomy, not realizing that two, big, fat HO-MO-SEX-UAL actors play main roles.

This has been my question for a long time: what exactly is so threatening about gay and lesbian people?

Both missives, published last week, were in response to The S-R editorial board’s decision to endorse a candidate for the Idaho Legislature who is an out lesbian. Strangely, it’s not often that Bible-thumping, damnation-spewing letters are published about adulterers. Where are the epistles about John Edwards and his extra-marital affair? Isn’t he, too, the equivalent of a murderer, according to the logic employed in these letters?

Mostly, it feels like those who believe in social justice are locked in an eternal struggle with those who adhere to fundamental religious belief. We may never be able to understand each other.

All I can think is that this man, whose Bible in Galatians 5:14 says “Love your neighbor as yourself” must not love himself very much.