It’s never easy to go against the leadership and apparent majority of a community, but there are likely others who feel as you do, who would appreciate someone being brave enough to be the voice that says, “This amendment is evil and the church’s stance on it is wrong.” Doctrine of infallibility aside, the Catholic Church has occasionally admitted it’s wrong. Now it did take nearly 400 years in the case of Galileo, but an apology was finally extended there.

Minds and institutions can change, but only if change is demanded. You say you don’t want to cause conflict and pain, but you are obviously in conflict and pain yourself. Why are your feeling less valid than those of others? Ultimately, there may be no reconciliation here. But again, you are not powerless. You can leave a community that is wrong and will not change. That way, when your pastor reports to Archbishop Nienstedt, he cannot say, “I have 100 congregants who support this amendment.” Instead he must report, “I have 80 congregants who support the amendment, 17 who are in doubt, and 3 who departed because they felt our position was unchristian.”

Hopefully, the message will take fewer than four centuries to get across.

Now what about this move to legalize combat between westfall chickens? Isn’t it just a slippery slope to full on mount combat?

When this was first on the ballot in California I talked with my parents about it. NoOn8 (the CA bill) is the only political cause to which I have ever given money, so I thought it was important to talk to them about my reasons. I talked with my dad about it especially, a guy who used to joke he was just to the right of Oliver North. Initially he was going to vote to ban gay marriage, but after we talked, he thought about it some more and changed his mind. Getting my dad to change his mind about anything is a pretty big feat, so I have hope!

It sounds like you might still be a bit steamed about the whole issue. I think you’re absolutely right that it would have been unnecessarily inflammatory to get up in front of your congregation, but if you still feel like you should do something, perhaps you have a church friend or two with whom you’d feel comfortable discussing this?

You’re a good writer and a thoughtful person, that is a powerful combination.

As a follower of Christ, we’re supposed to love our neighbors yes. And part of loving them is wanting them to know the same love and forgiveness that I know in Christ. It doesn’t matter what they need forgiveness for, that is between them and God. To God, all sins are equal except for grieving the Holy Spirit. We are not to judge…period. But we are also not to call that which is evil, good and we’re supposed to speak the truth in love. The truth is, God loved every person in this world so much that he sent his son to die for us, to save us. It’s up to each individual person in this world to either accept the free gift and live forever or reject it and die forever. God places the choice of life or death before us, he wants us all to choose life. But he also sadly knows that not everyone will.

Is not labelling a person’s belief in the bible as the inspired word of God, hatred, bigotry and intolerance, in and of itself…hatred, bigotry and intolerance?