Brad Custis writes that truth is “something that is real and can be trusted.” To me, there are many different types of truth in this world. I attended Catholic schools and I was always taught about different truths: historical truth, scientific truth, religious truth and moral or spiritual truth.
Along with that, we were always taught that the Bible, while a great place for Christians to find religious, moral and spiritual truth, is simply not a place to look for historical or scientific truth. Most of the stories in the Bible are looked at by many Christians, whether as part of an organized Christian sect or on their own, as allegories to show a religious, moral or spiritual truth.
My mom taught Biology in a Catholic school for about 10 years. While she had a sign on her wall that said “Big Bang Theory: God spoke and Bang it happened,” there was a lot more to the issue in her mind and classroom. She definitely included evolution in her curriculum. I remember her telling me that all theories of evolution lack a beginning. Something happened to begin evolution. In my mom’s eyes, that was God speaking.
These religious, moral and spiritual truths may have a place in your life. I’m sure they have a place in your church, mosque, synagogue or prayers. I will fight for your right to have those truths. However, I don’t believe in them.
To me, they simply aren’t true. Religious documents, such as the Bible, don’t contain historical or scientific truth. Historical and scientific truths are “real and can be trusted.”
Therefore, I believe in historical and scientific truths. In my life, these truths have never let me down and never will.
Custis argues that talking about Jesus is taboo and that people are hypocritical because they talk about “abortion, homosexual marriage, assisted suicide and other sensitive topics” without being prompted, but refuse to let Custis speak about his faith. I am one of those people who has complained about the overwhelming number of Christian columns. I am also one of those people who will talk about how abortion must stay legal and gays and lesbians must have the right to marry. In Custis’ eyes, I’m a hypocrite.
I will tell you why I am not. Getting those issues into the press is important because they deal with specific laws and our rights as people. Yes, Custis printing his ideas is a Constitutional issue of the First Amendment. But there is a key difference; no one is threatening to take away Custis’ rights.
No one has written opinion letters saying, “Christians must be silenced! I have talked to my Representative and he is proposing a law that will stop all Christians from being able to attend Church or fully participate in their faith. We will fire them from their jobs, deny them the right to buy homes, and not serve them in our restaurants. Join us in this plea!”
For years now, women and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community have been fighting to gain and keep rights that are already guaranteed to them as citizens. We speak so freely of America being about “freedom”, yet in Cincinnati there is law that forbids city council from enacting any protections for gays and lesbians.
What does this mean?
This means that, in Cincinnati, not only can gay men and lesbians not get married, but they can be fired from jobs and denied housing or services simply because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. There is nothing that these people can do. They have to leave their jobs and find somewhere else to work, live and eat.
While no one is trying to stop Christians from fully participating in their own faith and lives, many Christians (definitely not all, but it seems a majority if you look at opinion columns and George W. Bush’s rhetoric) want to stop gays and lesbians from participating fully in their own lives. These gay men and lesbians don’t have the same rights in our country because these rights aren’t guaranteed to them, but because people are using religious and moral truths as a justification for taking them away.
Now, who is being hypocritical here?
