Letter to editor (3.18.2013),

I read the other day that an Ohio senator changed his view with respect to the legalization of gay marriage; whereas the republican was once against, he now is for it. The fifth paragraph (one sentence) of the article in the Friday issue (3/15/2013) of the Journal-Gazette reads, “Portman announced Friday that he now supports gay marriage, linking his stand to learning that one of his sons is gay” (A-6).

Senator Portman is a republican from Ohio and in an op-ed piece he wrote, “Ultimately, for me, it came down to the Bible’s overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we all are children of God.”

This is commendable, but biblically illiterate. Exactly what is the Bible’s over-arching theme of love? It is not identified in the AP report, so we are left to wonder with regard to its nebulous quality. Perhaps we are supposed to understand that each man can do that which is right in his own eyes? Of course, Senator Portman will not accept such a thing because the consequences are further reaching than he will accept. He might just as well have, however, since if the Scriptures condemn homosexuality and the senator says it is now okay, then what other supporter of immoral behavior can’t say the same?

The over-arching theme of love is this: teaching us to deny ungodliness and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-12).

Objective morality has its foundation (basis) in that which greater than man; such a morality originates with the Creator. Those who apply a standard of morality apart from God’s standard can have no moral standard that is objective; the only standard left to implement is that is standard which belongs to man and that, by its very nature, is a subjective standard. Thus, to stand and look at something objectively is to start with an “I think” and to implement either God’s standard of morality or one’s own.

Printed 3.28.2013 in the Mattoon-Charleston Gazette