If this is the Pastor I am corresponding with, we have met once. I thought you were a nice enough fellow, and you seemed rather down to earth and clear headed. You invited me to your church, however, my beliefs lie elsewhere, and so I declined, although I enjoyed the visit.
However, I am afraid the reason I am writing to you today is less than positive. You see, I recently drove past your church and noticed the two phrases posted on your sign. I may be remembering them wrong, but I believe they read "Marriage is best God's way, between 1 Man and 1 Woman" on one side, and "Sodomy is Sin" on the other.
I will cut right to the chase. I am offended. As are a number of other people I have spoken to about this. Not because we are homosexual, because most of us aren't (I am in fact married to a wonderful woman, and have two excellent sons), but because it seems an awfully forceful way to speak your opinions. Okay, I will give you the "Sodomy is Sin" bit, only because it is fairly plainly stated as being so in the Bible (but allow me to point out the loophole that two gay women don't actually commit that sin). But, the other side of the sign. The "Marriage is best..." bit. That is pure, unwarranted opinion you are forcing down the throats of every motorist and pedestrian who has to travel that section of road (not to mention the numerous biblical examples of marriage that are not one man and one woman, but one rapist/one rape victim, one man/one slave, one man/many women, one man/one woman/many concubines, one man/one woman/whatever slaves the woman owns prior, one man/one prisoner of war, etc., etc...).
Sure, you have the right to free speech, it just seems odd to me that for a group of people (whom I have met, and witnessed), who preach so vehemently about love, that such a strong hateful, cherry picked message would be displayed. It seems counter-productive, and not to be antagonistic, but exactly what one would expect from a middle of nowhere Baptist church, unlike what I previously thought you were.
I am sure that the members of your church agree with you. I am sure that there are a fair amount of people elsewhere who do also, especially in an area like this one, but what is the point? The people against gay marriage are against it, and the people for it are for it. This late in the game, no one is really going to change their mind. It simply makes you look hateful, which I am sure you really aren't.
Now, I am not going to get into some massive religious debate with you (although it is definitely within my capabilities), I am only going to ask you to please change your sign, and keep your hate to yourselves. It's up to God himself to judge, is it not? And, so far as I know, no man is the voice of God. So, I implore you , display love. Display peace. Display understanding. Not bigotry and hate.
I know you will be getting a small flurry of these letters today, but instead of doing the stubborn "stand your ground in the face of adversity" thing, understand that people like myself are not attacking you. We are not "persecuting" you. We are not speaking at all against your beliefs. Only your publicly displayed message of hate. We are a small community, and the last thing we need is a tragedy like the Matthew Shepard incident (and hundreds like it) some years back to tear through our town.
So, I ask you one last time Pastor, as a leader in our community, preach love, not hate.
-Asa Morris
(to contact New Life Baptist Church, you can reach them here: http://www.nlbcministries.org/contact/)
**Update 6/22/11**
Whether or not this is the result of my (and hopefully others) letter(s), I would like to publicly thank Pastor Jon Hawkins for doing the right thing and removing the message from the sign. I appreciate it very much, and you, Pastor, have (needlessly) proven yourself to be a decent, and respectable human being, despite any issues you and I may disagree on. You could have told me (in polite terms, I am sure) to fuck off, but you didn't. I am thoroughly impressed.
Thank you, sir.
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