IN THEORY:A question of policy

While discussing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the armed forces, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said homosexuality is “immoral” and equated it with adultery. Some political observers say when Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services committee, criticized the general for his remarks, it indicated that Congress may revisit the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Several Democratic presidential hopefuls favor a repeal of the policy, while at least a couple of leading GOP candidates want to maintain the status quo. Do you think it’s time for Congress to reconsider the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy?

In the Arlington National Cemetery, on the gravestone of a Vietnam Veteran, it is written: “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

Attitudes some straights have toward gays seem the last respectable prejudice. Gays may be natural enemies because of the personal revulsion many straights feel about their behavior. Sex, let’s face it, is dynamite, and we should recognize the power of involuntary revulsion just as we do the power of involuntary attraction. What is all-important is to understand the source of one’s feelings and not to act in ways that hurt others.

Clearly God is more comfortable with diversity than we are. After all, she made it! We, on the other hand, fear it more than we celebrate it. Don’t we know that the opposite of love is not hatred but fear? “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:19).

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with and, perhaps, the most dangerous thing for a society to live without. Our leaders should encourage honest citizens to serve our country whatever their gender, race, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

The good tidings are that we live in a moral universe and, as the former foreign minister of Israel Abba Eban once remarked, “Human beings really do the right thing, but only after exhausting all alternatives.” I’ll trust Congress will soon do “the right thing.”

Let’s praise God who, to expand Luke 4:18 where Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1, brings liberty to the captives of conformity and recovery of sight to the blindly prejudiced.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Yes, we need to revamp this policy. It is unfortunate that Gen. Peter Pace has this point of view, but I’m not surprised. These are difficult and necessary changes. We must, at some point, stop discriminating against gay people. Anybody willing to serve his or her country deserves our full and complete support, no matter his or her gender, ethnicity or sexual identity. As we mature as a country, our armed services should reflect that maturation. It’s time to get rid of the notion that responsible people won’t act responsibly.

PASTOR JIM TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

Rabbinic law is based for the most part on the Talmud. The Talmud guarantees an individual’s right to privacy. The subject becomes a matter of discussion when improper behavior, in public or private, affects the image of someone in the workplace or in the community eye. No one is a saint in Judaism or guiltless in many accounts. The great medieval rabbi Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah, stated that private employees may be dismissed for sexual misconduct by their employer if it in some way infringes on their ability to perform their job properly or damages their employer’s reputation. An example of this is when a man discovers that his maidservant is a prostitute; the employer may dismiss her because it may damage his reputation. So here we are in modern times with a medieval commentary.

If a soldier is gay, does that diminish the view of the American military? G.I. Joe is always stereotyped as Rambo or the Terminator. Are our views to be changed about gay men and women, or do our laws have to be changed? Maimonides provides us the answer when he states, “If an employee engages in sexual practices which does not impinge on his ability to perform his job and does not endanger his co-workers, his employer may not fire him.”

Therefore, an employee has a certain right to privacy, as long as it does not interfere with his ability to perform his job. The question of sexual preference in military service then should not be asked and it should be avoided altogether.

RABBI MARC RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said that homosexuality is immoral, and many seem to agree with him. When asked why, they usually say they are Christians and that the Bible says so. But Jesus himself, who must have known some homosexuals, apparently never said anything against homosexuality. And the few places in the Bible that seem to condemn homosexuality are questionable since some Biblical and language scholars claim that they are simply misinterpretations of the original sources.

Homosexuality is a hot-button issue for many self-proclaimed Christians. They apparently get so aroused that they want to make a big deal of this one issue, while ignoring many of the other directives in the Bible. Why? Clearly, no one would choose to be homosexual — it is just what nature made them. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is like saying that left-handed people are evil (which, of course, they aren’t in spite of the fact that in Italian, sinistra, or sinister, is the word for left and left-handed) but that they will be allowed in the armed forces if they never let anyone else see them using their left hand.

A recent poll shows that a large majority of our fighting personnel say that they would have no problem having avowed homosexuals in the military. So, yes, it is time to get rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

JERRY PARKS

Member

Humanist Assn. of Orange

County

The Jewish ideal is that sexuality be expressed between a man and woman within the marital bond. No other relationship enjoys parity with heterosexual marriage, and there is no “alternate lifestyle” equivalent to that relationship. Remaining unmarried is viewed by Judaism as a less holy state than being married; celibacy is judged as a less complete life than one enriched by marital relations; and homosexuality is considered a less than ideal orientation than one characterized by heterosexuality.

Like all of us, though, who fall short of the ideal in many ways, Jewish people who are homosexual are to be recipients of our love and embraced as part of our community, as is any and every Jewish person. But irrespective of Judaism’s position on this issue, I would no more expect or desire it to affect the recruitment and service decisions of a military force in a democracy than I would suppose or hope that the theology of Christianity would inform such judgments.

I do not believe that one’s sexuality is an index to potential heroism or prospective cowardice. It no more betokens dependability and trustworthiness than one’s race, religion or ethnicity indicates valor or loyalty. No doubt, soldiers who are homosexual are as likely, or as unlikely, to sacrifice themselves on the battlefield as comrades who are heterosexual. Love for America and success in serving one’s country with honor and devotion is not sexually based. One’s response to the call of duty, principled defense of freedom, ability to give orders, follow commands, demonstrate proficiency with weaponry, meet the enemy with steely resolve, support other troops, earn commendations, win medals, and attain an honorable discharge are not enhanced nor compromised by one’s sexual nature or dating patterns. A homosexual soldier can be as valuable and valued, as respectful and respected, as a heterosexual soldier.

In the estimation of the Nazi leadership, homosexuals were inherently weak and congenitally unsuited to bear the rigors of military service. Shall we emulate the Wehrmacht, whose homosexual soldiers were forced to keep their sexual orientation a guarded secret, and denounce such of our own troops as unfit to serve our country? As Anne Frank’s father, Otto, wrote: “We cannot change what happened anymore. The only thing we can do is to learn from the past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means. I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to fight prejudice.”

As “Taps” sounds for all soldiers without distinction at the sunset of their lives, so “Reveille” should sound for all soldiers without distinction at the sunrise of the day. Purges of homosexual soldiers cast dishonor upon our military, and homophobic witch hunts are a disgrace to our nation. Homosexuals in the armed forces bleed, suffer and die without reference to their same-gender attraction. The marker over their graves in many a military cemetery is the same as that of their compatriots: a cross or Star of David. It is not a pink triangle.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Gay and lesbian soldiers should have the same rights as everyone else. Congress should make it clear that discrimination against gay soldiers will no longer be tolerated.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was an improvement over the dishonorable discharge of gay soldiers. It is time now to take the next step to ensure the fair treatment of all who enlist in the armed services, regardless of race, color, creed, gender or sexual orientation.

The debate about the rights of gay and lesbian people is taking place in every part of our society —- in churches, adoption agencies, marriage laws and the military. In the British army, there are no reports of any problems resulting from its policy of including gay soldiers and not requiring them to be closeted. But in the end, one either believes that homosexuality is simply another form of diversity among human beings or one believes that it is abnormal behavior and immoral.

In Zen Buddhism, each person is called to realize and express his or her awakened, true self — whether gay or straight. There is nothing in our tradition to prohibit or disparage same-sex orientation, sexual activities, relationships or marriages.

I believe more and more people do support gay rights, and I look forward to the day when gay and lesbian people have equal rights.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

The policy allows for people of any gender to serve our country. Banning homosexuals from the military would be like banning them from the gym. It is not the answer, but it tries to fill a middle ground on an issue that our culture has yet to settle. Would any men reading this column feel comfortable taking a shower with their basketball team at the gym if a woman walked in and took a shower next to them? Not the men of integrity at least. The opposite is true as well. Virtually no woman reading this column would feel comfortable if while she and her friends were in the shower at the gym a man walked in and joined them. The reader might feel equally uncomfortable if someone with expressed homosexual orientation joined them in the shower. The difference is what the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy tries to cover. If you don’t know, then the discomfort wouldn’t be there. This allows for gays in the military to continue to serve as they desire.

I don’t have the answer on this one. Like it or not people will always feel uncomfortable. Repealing the policy is a political solution, not a military or moral one. It allows the politicians to feel like they have done their job, when all they have really done is score approval points and force the military to deal with a problem that our general culture has not come to agreement on.

But I don’t live in the military. My world is the shepherding of the body of Christ. We don’t have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. In fact, we encourage openness.

The message of the Gospel invites and welcomes everyone to a relationship with Christ. When we come, no matter who we are, God then begins to shape us into his image.

None of us is perfect, and we walk together as we all work on our own issues.

When I interviewed for my current ministry position, one of the questions I was asked was whether or not I would welcome homosexuals to our services.

I told them that it was my expectation that we would have homosexuals coming to our church and that they would be welcomed.

RIC OLSEN

Lead Pastor

The Beacon

Anaheim