LETTER: Guise of Tolerance

Your printing of two men kissing on the front page (DP 3/26/92) clearly illustrates the perspective of our society: an indifference toward morality. The attitude of our pluralistic campus can be characterized as one where what I do and what I believe is OK for me and what another person does and believes is OK for him or her. However, as a Catholic Christian, I cannot say that I could support the DP's printing of a photograph of a "movement" that supports a lifestyle to which I strongly disagree. I cannot condone the DP's choice to indifferently present a lifestyle that I, as a Christian, believe is sin-filled. As a Christian, I believe that partaking in homosexual acts -- as well as any sexual activity outside the context of a marriage between a man and a woman -- is a sin. Levitic law of the Jews -- which points out what is sin not only for Jews and Christians, but for all humanity -- uncompromisingly presents homosexual activity as a sin (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). The apostle Paul as a Jewish Christian affirms this in his letter to the Romans. Paul includes homosexuality as a rebellious act of disobedience against God (Romans 1:24-32). Call me prudish, but don't call me homophobic. It would be erroneous to automatically attribute to me a fear of homosexuals. Granted, I may regard sex between homosexuals as a sin -- as a Christian I am called to stand firmly for what I believe is right on an absolute scale. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I am called to love all people regardless of their sin. Like Jesus, I am to hate the sin and love the sinner. I still love the person -- gay, straight or bisexual. Yet love is patient (I Corinthians 13:4), not tolerant. If love were infinitely tolerant, God -- who is creator of love and perfect lover -- would never have had to send His Son. We all should be condemned to hell because that is what all of us as sinners deserve. Yet Jesus received the punishment that we deserved, so that we could be reconciled to God. Repentence is uncompromising faith in Christ and is what God calls all of us -- myself included -- to do, whether we are gay, straight or bisexual. What is sad about all this is that the DP has given in to mere indifference with no voice crying in approbation or disapproval. Instead of being a herald of truth, the DP simply acquiesces in the ideological apathy -- under the guise of "tolerance" -- that plagues this campus and our society. RICK SOTOMAYOR College '92