Graves should read Bible

Regular Spokesman-Review columnist and retired United Methodist minister Paul Graves uses approximately 600 words in his Nov. 22 column to chide owners of The Hitching Post in Coeur d’Alene for refusing to marry same-sex couples. We mere subscribers are restricted to no more than 200 words for letters of response, most of which this paper will refuse to print anyway.

Graves writes, “I can speak only out of my own Christian tradition.” As I read and reread Graves’ treatise, I was reminded of words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel 15:3, “Why do you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”

In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 17, verses 26-30, Jesus warned that in the last days of this world conditions will be similar to those which prevailed in the days of Noah and Sodom. One need but read Genesis 19 and Romans 1 to know what he was speaking of.

Would Jesus then conduct a same-sex marriage in direct contradiction of his own warning? Absolutely not.

Far from seeking to form a “theocracy” as Graves accuses, Hitching Post owners are simply following the admonition of Jesus himself and St. Peter. When man’s laws contradict God’s law: “We must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:28 and 29.

Ken Campbell

Deer Park