May it please the court of public opinion, let me first state that I retract nothing from my previous letter. However, it has been relayed to me that some would like to see me dismissed from the university because they misinterpreted my use of Jesus’ words in Luke 17:1-2 as a call to violence against homosexuals. It was not.

Considering my choice to attend a public university, I should have anticipated the “liberal thought police” to be on patrol, squelching any opinion that differs from their own. But isn’t a public university, located in the United States of America, the most correct setting to have unedited dialogue without fear of reprisal? If it had been “Coming Out to Take the Lord’s Name in Vain Day,” and I had declared it sin, would reaction have been the same?

But I digress. My letter was intended as a “heads up” to those who promote sin through misrepresenting God and to warn them through Jesus’ own words, the lens through which they may be cast on judgment day.

Please permit me to respond.

The moral relativism prevalent in the world today is a direction that encourages individual citizens to define for themselves right and wrong; the cost of which is a loss of moral absolutes.

People are lost in a wilderness of immediate gratification. Between the media, music, friends and even family, young men and women are expertly trained in feeding hungers of the flesh.

But what of the soul and the nourishment it requires? Of the two, which contributes most to one’s lot of life, liberty and happiness? I propose it is the soul.

For those seeking internal change and an alternate view to the one offered by the morally bankrupt, I humbly propose the Bible.

The aforementioned “dogma” of moral relativism has had an adverse affect on me and those I love. Rather than continue in silence, I choose to offer an alternate “established opinion” to those like me: sinners.

I find only two Christian laws at work: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22:37 and 39. Notice which one Jesus spoke first.

However, for those who cited the second, how does one love his neighbor? Through justifying his wicked behavior?

I do not support or condone violence of any sort against anyone, at anytime-except to preserve self and family. I am an American. I am a sinner. I love my neighbor and, in doing so, rebuke him “frankly,” Leviticus 19:17. I suggest that people arm themselves with the “sword of the Spirit,” thus possessing the ultimate weapon in battling “the father of lies,” Ephesians 6:17 and John 8:44. Through God’s strength, His grace manifested in Jesus and honest fellowship with thy neighbor, you can experience victory, John 5:8. To God be the glory!

Jay Vinson

Junior

Radiologic technology