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- Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.homosexuality
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnewsk!cbnewsj!ecl
- From: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper)
- Subject: Lifestyle Choices (was Re: Sexuality)
- Organization: AT&T
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 18:55:45 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Dec30.185545.26789@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
- References: <1hq25lINNnra@hp-col.col.hp.com> <1992Dec29.233922.2539@netcom.com> <1992Dec30.162502.6756@asl.dl.nec.com>
- Lines: 43
-
- In article <1992Dec30.162502.6756@asl.dl.nec.com> dillhoff@aslws01.asl.dl.nec.com (Doug Dillhoff) writes:
- > In article <1992Dec29.233922.2539@netcom.com> harp@netcom.com (Gregory O. Harp) writes:
- > >However, removing all of these things from the school environment is
- > >impossible, and IMO, not the best solution anyway. Instead, we have
- > >to teach children (at home and in school) to feel free to have
- > >whatever views they (or their parents) wish, but to learn and
- > >understand that others don't necessarily share those views, and that
- > >they should not be persecuted for that reason.
- >
- > Unlike heterosexuality, which is dictated by nature, homosexuality
- > is a lifestyle choice and should not be presented as such to school
- > children.
-
- (I assume the "not" in the last sentence is a typo, BTW.)
-
- Since homosexuality is found in *every* mammalian species, the
- statement that it is a lifestyle choice is scientifically questionable,
- but if it is, so what? Christianity, meat-eating, and monogamous
- marriage are not dictated by nature--they are all lifestyle choices.
- Yet I believe that schools should teach that Christians, meat-eaters,
- and monogamists are peple who may hold different views from the
- student, but who should not be persecuted because of this.
-
- All people are asking is that unless you can come up with some
- *secular* reason for why their lifestyle choice is bad, you grant
- them the same rights they are willing to grant you: the right to
- live their life without persecution.
-
- And as for tolerance versus acceptance: as a Jew I am not willing to
- accept that the schools teach merely tolerance ("yes, we know they're
- going to burn in Hell, but you must not kill them anyway"), but
- acceptance ("yes, we know that some people think their beliefs are
- wrong, but in this country that is not an acceptable reason for
- treating them any differently than anyone else").
-
- In some Islamic countries, Christianity is treated as badly as
- homosexuality is here--and with all the same justifications.
- Are you ready to say that's that is acceptable to you?
-
- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com
- --
- "God does not play dice with the universe." --Albert Einstein
- "Albert, stop telling God what to do." --Niels Bohr
-