Dear Editor:

A reply to George Lenz, Robert Austell, Doug Ramaker, and Bruce Byrne as to their concerns with my article on "Straight or Gay – A Commentary on Matthew 23".

The basic assumption of the Presbyterian Church (USA) regarding love by homosexual persons is that any sexual behavior on their part is sinful. Thus, we say, along with Roman Catholics and others, that even though their condition is no fault of their own, they must never engage in any sexual behavior. They must sublimate any sexual feelings or behavior. They must live a lobotomized spirituality – life in a straight jacket. I believe, along with the medical community, this to be prescription for a sick life. And it does not reflect well on the mind-set of those who would impose such a proscription.

But the fact remains that gays and lesbians are just as capable of wholesome love with fidelity as straights. As a pastor these forty years, I have seen such love and I am deeply touched by it.

The mistake in saying we truly love them and not their sin is that we have falsely characterized any homosexual behavior as sinful. As with straight sexual behavior, it may or may not be. If that love reflects what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13 (what the French ethicist Andre Comte-Sponville calls "the most beautiful text that has ever been written" on love), I believe such behavior would not to be sinful, i.e., in opposition to God, for either gays or straights.

But please, let us not force on gays and lesbians burdens we ourselves would not bear. Jesus rightly called that hypocrisy throughout Matthew 23.

Perhaps none of us in our own behavior can fully match this description of love that Paul wrote but it does not depend on one’s sexual orientation.