Letter of the month: December 1999

From: RStrong35@aol.com
Message-Id: <0.efb2ad7a.257c8b6c@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 22:45:48 EST
Subject: perverted and imoral?
To: masonry-ask@MIT.EDU

I take it from your answer to a letter from a gay man, that may be you dont think that homosexuals are perverted or imoral.Although there is nothing about it in the ancient landmarks, do you think maybe thats why you have an investigating committee to find out the morality of a person who would like to join the lodge. The liberals who support the gay movement are a stain on what our great country once stood for and some of us still do. Call me what you will but the Holy Bible says that homosexual acts are a sin. I enjoy your website very much and have been enlightened but much of what you share on your pages. I was shocked at your seemingly support for a homosexual in the Craft. I am 32 but I was brought up in the ways of the old school, maybe things are still held sacred here in the Great State of Texas which was once called The Daughter of Masonry. I do not intend any meanness only a concern about who will represent the Craft and a willingness to direct a person on the wrong road to take a look at themselves and the way God would have them go. A concerned frequenter of your page.

To: RStrong35@aol.com
Subject: Re: perverted and imoral? 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 05 Dec 1999 22:45:48 EST."
             <0.efb2ad7a.257c8b6c@aol.com>
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The Bible also says that eating shellfish is a sin. The Bible says that eating blood, or the meat from the shoulder joint of an animal is a sin. The Bible says that wearing clothes of two mixed fibers is a sin. The Bible says that eating a cereal of two mixed grains is a sin. The Bible says that eating meat and milk together is a sin. In fact the Bible lists 613 positive and negative commandments, and transgression of many of those renders one "unclean" or in a state of sin.

If you are going to quote and live by Levitical law, you'd better know the whole thing.

If instead you have chosen to live by the Christian covenant of remission of sins by the grace of a Saviour, then go that route and then you will leave the Priestly laws behind.

If you want to base your personal code of conduct on biblical teaching and tradition, then choose one or the other, but at least be logical about it.

If you want to pick and choose among parts of biblical law to condemn something that personally displeases you, that is your privilege, but don't dress it up in as biblical logic. (I had a great teacher who said, "Se puede vestir una mona de seda, pero mona se queda.")

Personally, I prefer not to drag sectarian political or religious arguments into lodge or Masonry. That you do not have that reluctance is also your choice.

In many places, among many people, being gay is not considered a sin any more than is a woman wearing slacks (also forbidden in Leviticus). Masonry was supposed to teach you to drop your own plumbline and build true to that, and to respect the plumbline and the true building of others.

Oh well...

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| Gary L. Dryfoos <dryfoo@mit.edu>| PM: Ocean Lodge AF&AM, Saugus GL Mass.
| P.O.Box 425400, Camb, MA 02142  |   & Mt. Scopus Lodge AF&AM, Malden ""
| http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/  | 32~; MPS; B'hood o/t Blue Forget-Me-Not;
| w: 617.253-0184 f: 617.258-6875 | Internet Lodge #9659, E. Lancs UGLE
|       Rt. Wor. Grand Rep. of the GL of Russia near the GL of Massachusetts
|   "...one sacred band, or society of Friends and Brothers, among
|    whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble contention,
|    or rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree."
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