I am writing in response to one writer who expressed her views on God and same-sex marriage. I am emphatically for same-sex marriage because it is a right of all individuals to receive the benefits that marriage bestows upon a couple.

I don't believe homosexuality to be a state of mental degeneration, but rather one which is biological and a part of one's physiology. My purpose here though is to point out the lack of acceptance among literal interpreters of the bible.

Maybe in your world where a hell exists, I may be going to hell because I support those whose lifestyles conflict with the Bible; but in my world, one where neither hell nor heaven exists, a world which accepts individuals, as Dr. King would say, on the “content of their character.” I will not be punished by any celestial being.

Furthermore, the events which transpired at Virginia Tech were not the result of the secularization of America; they were the result of a deranged man in a culture which is consumed by guns and violence. Views that explain events in a ecclesiastical manner suspend rational thinking, humanitarianism, and cooperation among human beings. We as human beings have a duty to embrace others regardless of any social category including sexual orientation, only then may we achieve a virtuous state of society.

Casting aside others by equating their views as sadistic, is wrong, irrational, and unhealthy to the state of human affairs. I commend Governor Spitzer's views on same-sex marriage as it is an example of the progress we have made and how the secularization of society will indeed bring a more accepting and inclusive society.

Shannon David

Auburn