• Same old sin • Ending stigma Same old sin In response to Rev. Rudinoff’s “New Revelations” letter of Jan. 27, I must say that I find his stand on HB 444 and the Christian faith just as incongruous as
• Same old sin • Ending stigma
Same old sin
In response to Rev. Rudinoff’s “New Revelations” letter of Jan. 27, I must say that I find his stand on HB 444 and the Christian faith just as incongruous as he found those opposing his view. I find the title of “reverend” for any man incongruous with the Christian faith. But that’s me.
The issue isn’t what Mr. Rudinoff has before his name or what he feels makes religious sense in his eyes, the issue at hand is the difference between what God has given us and what men make out of it. God gave us a faith, men have made a religion and in that lies the difference between the two school of thoughts. Mr. Rudinoff is right that denominations (men who took a faith and put their own fingers in it, packaged it, slapped a name on it and added a hierarchal structure to it) denied the basic rights of many people, races and creeds in the name of a religious Christianity in the past. But that doesn’t make God or His Word wrong.
Sad things have happened, but this is what happens when we move away from the teachings of Jesus and the gift of love that God left with us and begin to define God by our own means and feelings. And love is always the missing ingredient. Love for the homosexuals is something the church has not done in previous years and in recent years. But also love for the adulterer, the fornicator, the liar, the thief and everyone else. Love for the sinner but not for the sin.
Mr. Rudinoff would like us to believe that over the years God has loosened up a bit, you know; “Everyone’s doing it, its hip now, I guess it’s all OK.” God changed His mind. This would be Mr. Rudinoff’s “new revelation,” but all it is, is the same old sin and religious men’s own loosening up to their sins. I have not mastered by any means the attributes of God, but I will say that if all things concerned were handled in the eyes of love, many of these things wouldn’t even be issues. And remember, love is also about obedience. Jesus said: “If you love Me, you will obey My commands.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born an African American in a segregated America, he had no choice in his color or race. He fought for all men to be treated equal, for we were created equal. He did not fight for all men’s actions to be treated equally. With sin, there is always a choice, to obey God’s Word or not, whether religious men “feel” it’s time for God to get with the times or not, His Word remains true and does not change, nor does man’s sin and his need for a Savior.
Pastor Tom Iannucci
‘Ele‘ele
Ending stigma
The greatest barrier to the missions of YWCA of Kaua‘i, Malama Pono Kaua‘i AIDS Project and Kaua‘i Hospice is stigma and misinformation. A letter published in The Garden Island on Jan. 27 (“HB444 is bad policy”) presents an example of the stigma that’s holding us back. We do our best to counter the negative effects of stigma by providing clear and thoughtful reasoning along with factual information.
The letter writer was using disease as one of his arguments for his opposition to HB444, the so-called civil unions bill. We take no stand here either for or against the bill. There are valid arguments on each side of the question, however, the writer’s assertion that homosexuality is a choice, is associated with AIDS and is necessarily a dangerous lifestyle is inaccurate.
Associating AIDS with homosexuality and blaming those with the disease is not helpful to the mission of eliminating the disease. It provides false security to heterosexuals who, in fact, are very much at risk since the heterosexual population is the major repository of the virus.
Choice is an inaccurate word to use. Nobody chooses disease. Neither does sexuality appear to be a choice. All three agencies deal with many hundreds of people from all religions, lifestyles and regions of the state and country and have yet to find even one who says he or she chose to be either heterosexual or homosexual. All empirical data published simply do not provide any validity to the choice argument.
Lifestyle is also a difficult word to use in this argument. We are very acutely aware of dangerous lifestyles on Kaua‘i. We deal with them on a daily basis. Neither homosexuals nor heterosexuals operate as a group. Homosexuals certainly have no monopoly on dangerous lifestyles and like heterosexuals, some participate in harmful lifestyles while the majority doesn’t.
All sexually transmitted diseases are harmful to Kaua‘i. We have thousands infected with viral hepatitis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, most of them heterosexuals. Whether heterosexual or homosexual, the safest sex is that between uninfected monogamous couples. The stigma perpetuated by the letter writer demonstrates how assumptions made regarding entire groups and their behaviors actually create more barriers to education and service. Using the fatuous argument of associating disease with groups to promote a political viewpoint also makes it harder for us to make Kaua‘i a community safer from these diseases.
D.Q. Jackson, Executive
Director. Malama Pono
Lori Miller, Executive Director
Kaua‘i Hospice
Renae Hamilton, Executive Director, YWCA of Kaua‘i
