This is a response to the Aug 19, 2018, Daily Inter Lake opinion pages, ‘In defense of LGBTQ+’, pages C7 & C8, and an article from a gay ex-minister on page C9. All of the letters were in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and addressed an earlier op-ed by Tim Adams.

I hadn’t read his op-ed, but evidently he made some derogatory comments about LGBTQ’s. Gays and lesbians have suffered bigotry and persecution for centuries, and it’s perhaps appropriate that they have finally found a unified voice. While I have no beef with those who were born with a gay or lesbian condition, their activism does raise some questions. This will address two issues that were evident in the Aug. 19 op-eds.

In the letter, “Not all Christians think that way,” the writer, a “devout Christian,” uses the Bible in an attempt to support the LGBTQ’s, essentially claiming that the Bible calls them “good” people. So why, then, would the Bible also call homosexuals an abomination if they’re good people? The letter writer tells us that gays and lesbians were created on day six, and since God saw that His creation was good, then gays and lesbians must be good people. It’s true that, by and large, gays and lesbians are decent and honest enough to get by in society, but they were not created on day six of creation. No standard Bible says so. Adam was the only person created on day six, and Eve was formed from one of Adam’s ribs. Please note that for the remainder of day six after Adam and Eve were created, they had not yet disobeyed God. Their fall came later, after day six, and gays and lesbians came even later, through the line of offspring. That being the case, if, as the Bible says, God called His creation good, does that also include all the thieves and murderers who came along after the fall? If gays and lesbians, who came after the fall, can be called good, then so can all of history’s murderers. Not that LGBTQ’s fall to that level, but the use of the Bible to assign some quality of “goodness” to them is a misrepresentation of the Bible.

If this is troubling, then it only means that the definition of “good” in the Bible verse being referenced means something other than “morally good.” It probably means that the creation was just exactly what God intended, including the so-called “free will,” and the attendant possibility of Adam and/or Eve turncoating, which the Bible tells us they did. God certainly knew this could or would happen, and He created things that way anyway, since He knew His plan of salvation ahead of time, as the Bible plainly says. The message for gays and lesbians is that you’re sinners just like the rest of us, and need a Savior. You don’t get eternal life because someone told you the Bible says you’re “good.” None of us are, and the Bible doesn’t say we are. It goes out of its way to say the opposite. And God hasn’t changed His mind. If you’re wondering why a righteous God could make you the way you are, you’re a product of the fall of Adam and Eve, and saved sinners will be changed in the hereafter, as the Bible plainly says.

Another letter, “Bigotry on steroids,” conferred misjudgment on the Daily Inter Lake editors for printing Mr. Adams’ op-ed against LGBTQ’s, calling their action “another instance of journalistic authority legitimizing individual bigotry.” The same could and should be said of the author of that line, another double standard to promote gay and lesbian lifestyles. Another letter, “Holding up mirror to religious hatred,” voiced the same thing about the editors. It’s only garden variety hypocrisy, and thank God and our Founding Fathers for free speech.

Knutson is a resident of Dayton.