Mayor Bill Welch
State College Municipal Building
243 South Allen Street
State College, PA 16801-4806
March 12, 2008
Dear Mayor Welch,
Prior to reading the CDT article regarding the upcoming ceremony at Penn State on the 29th, I don’t think I would have recognized your name. I don’t really get into politics, and I don’t even subscribe to the CDT. I read the article online. And I was dismayed.
You and I do not share the same convictions regarding same-sex relationships. It appears you think they are, or should be, equivalent to traditional marriage. Certainly you are entitled to your opinion. According to WJAC TV, "It's not illegal or immoral," Welch said. "I'm pro-commitment. I favor love and I didn't see any reason not to do it." That is your publicly stated opinion. (http://www.wjactv.com/news/15403639/detail.html)
I do not know how you derive your standards of morality. If morality is determined by one’s own opinion, then of course, your statement makes perfect sense. Your standard of right and wrong is dependent upon whatever you think is right or wrong. However, if personal opinion is the standard, then my opinion is as valid as yours or anyone else’s. Ultimately, what this means is no one can speak authoritatively about morality or anything else. There is no ultimate standard of law or morality. Neither your morality nor my morality can be imposed on another person because it is just that: my morality.
However, moral standards cannot be based upon personal opinion or even majority opinion. Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany are one of the worst examples of this. The majority opinion was that all the Jews needed to be exterminated. The majority opinion was immensely immoral. Many other examples could be listed. Clearly, majority or popular opinion does not determine what is right or wrong, good or evil, moral or immoral.
The only person in a position to impose a universal standard of morality upon the human race is the Creator of the human race, and He has done so. His “opinion” carries a great deal more weight than yours or mine. According to what I read of His “opinion”, it differs widely from yours in regard to this issue of marriage and homosexuality.
We could quibble about definitions regarding homosexuality, marriage, long-term monogamous relationships and the nature of love. However, if the Scriptures condemn adultery among traditional married couples (the 7th commandment), then it should be easy to understand that homosexuality is also immoral. If extramarital sex is immoral (generally described as fornication in the Scriptures), then homosexuality is an extreme form of fornication and therefore immoral. The immorality of homosexuality is not merely implied by Scripture, but it is explicit:
Romans 1:24 (English Standard Version) “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Leviticus 18:22 (ESV) “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV) “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
I Timothy 1:9 (ESV) “. . . understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. . . .”
Mayor Welch, please understand that while this ceremony may not be illegal, it is quite immoral, according to an infinitely Higher Power who will judge our lives and recompense us as our deeds deserve. For your own sake, and for the sake of this community (both straight and gay), I urge you to walk away from this. It is not good. It is the public endorsement of something God has declared to be not simply immoral, but abominable. You are at odds with God Himself.
Sincerely,
Rev. Keith Doster
Grace Fellowship of Pine Grove Mills
PO Box 121
Pine Grove Mills, PA 16868
814-861-6619
www.gracefellowshippgm.org