Here is my letter to the editor in response to Klaszus printed in the Herald on September 6:
Re: “Churches slow to change views on gays,” Sep. 3.
Jeremy Klaszus is embarrassed by his apparently naive thinking in college that it might be okay
to have homosexual inclinations only as long as one didn’t act on those urges. This perspective he now summarily dismisses because it “didn’t make a lot of sense, as you can tell.” But what exactly doesn’t make sense?
Morality is about helping us navigate between inclinations and temptations in our heads and
what is acceptable behaviour. That Klaszus has changed his views toward homosexual behaviour does not make others who still hold such reservations irrational.
Biblical Christianity has traditionally held that sexual activity of any form outside the confines of heterosexual marriage is morally wrong not because it has hang-ups with human sexuality or homosexuality, but because it recognizes that such behaviour is morally accountable to a higher being.
We live in an open society that embraces people who hold differing views on God, religion and morality. That openness should not presume as Klaszus does that churches need to “change”their sexual morality to match his own, but should respect the rights of all to adhere to their own moral conscience or tradition.