To the editor:

It saddens me to see our community, most of us with the best of intentions, so divided over our understanding of what we are supposed to do with the bodies, and lives, with which our Creator has gifted us.

It seems as if today’s arguments assume that all of these human challenges, and disagreements, have come about in the past 60 years. When God created the world, he provided an owner’s manual, of sorts. We humans have been ignoring significant parts of it since the beginning of time, including his updated versions.

Many of us consume alcohol, to various degrees, but few would find it controversial to say that it is improper to consume it to excess. In fact, most would agree that those of us who have the strongest urges for alcohol should be avoiding it altogether.

Some of us consume tobacco; most agree that it would be better if no one did. Is that not an urge that most can agree should be suppressed? Similarly, with other recreational (legal and illegal) drugs?

Our Creator has indeed given us many blessings, and many urges. Not all of those urges are healthy, nor are all of them properly interpreted by ourselves, or society. Understanding those urges is complicated, and usually very personal. We should all be able to recognize that each of us has urges that are necessarily, and properly, suppressed.

The Church, along with the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, teaches us that our attractions to each other should lead us to “go forth and multiply”. It should not lead us to view each other with lust, which is for pleasure, without purpose of procreation.

She (the church) also teaches us that few of us have what we would view as perfect bodies. Our dissatisfaction with our bodies should never lead us to mutilate our selves. God gave us our bodies for a purpose, for his purposes. We need to accept that gift, making the best of it that we can, in our own understanding of that purpose. It should not be controversial to discourage our friends from abusing, or mutilating, the wonderful gift of the human form.

Please pray for all who are struggling to understand God’s gifts to them.

Brad Hennen

Ghent