Dear Editor:

Supplementing The Reverend Adam Scott's letter of January 20: adding another item to the "funniest things ever read in an official denominational publication." This is the assertion by The Reverend R. Milton Winter that what committed, same-sex couples are pleading for is "the church's tolerance." (Tolerance: tolerating or being tolerant, especially of others' views, beliefs, practices, etc.).

My understanding is that the views, beliefs, practices, etc. of same-sex couples who are church members are already being widely tolerated within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). There is, of course, widespread opposition in the church to a separate matter: the pleading by many of these members for a change in traditional rules so as to permit them to be ordained without first repenting of their same-sex practices.

Karl Landstrom
Arlington, Virginia.