Though I generally am uncomfortable with the frequent Bible quoting in the editorial page, I hope you will permit me to use the Bible to make an observation. As a devout Catholic Christian who attended St. Philip's School in Litchfield, I recall that one of the main messages of our religion classes was that God is love, and we are called to love one another. I also put great stock in the verse "So faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love" (I Corinthians:13).
I want to thank Dean Johnson for following the tenets of his ministerial vocation and refusing to allow hateful discrimination against one group to be put into the Minnesota Constitution. That would be the opposite of Christian, it seems to me, and the opposite of how a minister should behave. There is already a law, and to have discrimination put into the Constitution is rather like judging others and not seeing the log in one's own eye (Matthew 7:3).
For the life of me, I cannot think of one way that having a constitutional amendment against gay marriage would help marriages. The terribly high divorce rate is obviously completely independent of whatever happens between gay couples. The biblical Jesus I believe in made it clear that loving your neighbor as yourself, not making harsh rules, was the way to follow him.
Mary Pieh
New London
