Diverse Community, Diverse Views

For those of us who have gay family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues and classmates (from Gilbert High School), the issue of gay marriage isn’t a theological debate between “God-centered” and “human-centered” principles (“Letters,” April 2012). It’s about fairness and civil rights. I don’t believe that the gay people in our community should be denied the right to marry any more than Mr. Atkinson and Ms. Gundlach (“On Casting the First Stone,” April 2012) should be denied theirs. 

David Donihue

While Norfolk Now has the right to print any opinion the editors want, I believe they showed extraordinarily bad judgment when they printed Paul Atkinson’s letter (“Letters,” April 2012) and the accompanying View From The Green (“On Casting the First Stone,” April 2012).  Would the letter have been printed if it had declared that it is a sin for women to own property, or for African Americans to vote? In the past, scriptural justifications have been offered for both these positions.

The accompanying editorial did nothing to distance the paper from the discriminatory language of the letter; suggesting “tolerance” is specious in this conversation—who are we to tolerate or not tolerate when we are talking about guaranteed civil rights?

Kate Neuman

People who presume to lecture us about our country (“Letters,” April 2012) should at least know its history. It is manifestly not the case that our founders were “God-centered visionaries.” In fact, the most prominent ones–Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Franklin–were deists, secular and not avid churchgoers. They were suspicious of the near-theocracy that had existed in New England and Virginia and what they considered the unfortunate influence of organized religion on the European courts. That’s why they created the doctrine of separation of church and state.

As for the issue at hand, if there be a caring God, let us pray that he sends us as many lesbians and gays as choose to live here. Let our churches brim over with their weddings.

Rinker Buck

We are writing to state with clarity that we believe the teachings of the God of Jesus Christ call us to love our neighbors without regard for their sexual orientation.  This letter comes in response to last month’s Norfolk Now in which two Norfolk residents, one an editorial staff member, articulated their views on same-sex marriage (“Letters” and “On Casting the First Stone,” April 2012).

In two months, on June 24, Church of Christ, Congregational (United Church of Christ), Norfolk will celebrate the 5^th anniversary of the adoption of the following Open and Affirming statement:

We, the Church of Christ Congregational (UCC) of Norfolk, Connecticut seek to keep Christ in the center of our lives, and we strive to provide an extravagant welcome to all persons. 

Therefore, we declare ourselves to be an Open and Affirming church.  We embrace the diversity in our community, and we affirm the dignity and worth of every person created in the image of God.  We welcome into full membership and participation in the Body of Christ persons of every race, age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, economic or marital status, and faith background.  We understand that oppression and discrimination of any kind is incompatible with Christ’s Gospel of unconditional love. Through our diversity, we seek to grow in a unity of faith.

The above statement is a product of our Christian faith; it is not derived from a vague or even secular humanism.  It was produced through an extensive and thorough process of conversation and study, and it is our belief that its message springs from Christ’s command to love God fully and to love our neighbor as we are loved.  The vote to adopt this statement was unanimous.

Additionally, in October 2005 this congregation approved a Civil Union Policy.  This policy states: “The minister shall have the authority to perform or decline, based on his/her discernment of the situation, a wedding or civil union ceremony or similar ceremony of blessing between two persons of the same or different sex on or off church premises.”

There are, of course, many Scripture passages that prohibit certain behaviors (e.g., eating meat with blood in it, trimming your beard, wearing clothing of mixed materials) to which for a number of reasons we do not as Christians adhere.  Other texts that call us away from sorcery, murder, idolatry, cheating others in business, etc. we turn to prayerfully seeking guidance in our choices.  The Bible is our life guide.

We further understand that sexual orientation is not a choice, and we know that this is one point where agreeing to disagree with others in love is best.  Sexual orientation – for which so many have been shunned or persecuted or even murdered – is not, we believe, something one chooses but is rather something with which one is born along with skin color, family history, physical and mental ability, and more.

While we agree to disagree on this matter, it is our hope and prayer that we may be united with others of faith in continuing to strive to be God’s people and to live as we pray each week that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven.  For us here this means responding to God’s clarion call to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.  Where our brothers and sisters named by Christ as the least of these are struck by poverty, hunger, intolerance, war, oppression, and fear – we pray that God will continue to give us the strength to show up there and make a difference.

With an open and affirming invitation to all to join us,

The Rev. Erick Olsen, Pastor; Julia Green, Senior Deacon; Jim Harrington, Nancy Herzig, Lyn Patrick, John Thew, Nels White, Deacons; Dr. Thomas Vergo, Heather Thomson, Kate Persons, Marie Civco, Leona Alley, Janis Graham-Jones, Council members; Elizabeth Allyn, Minister of Music; Christina Wignall, Director of Christian Education; Fred Herzig, Moderator; Lisa Auclair, Clerk

Examining the Statistics

We were all very happy and proud when Norfolk ranked highly among small towns in Connecticut Magazine’s Rating Survey. As the magazine pointed out, this ranking is important because “young families…look to the survey when casting about for a place with good schools or lower living costs”.

The editor of CM contends that “the findings are statistical not qualitative”. However, readers draw “qualitative” conclusions from “statistical” tables, which can be misleading as presented in her magazine. 

CM ranks towns according to five criteria (Education, Crime, Economy, Cost and Leisure), then totals the rankings across the five criteria and ranks the towns from lowest to highest scores. Norfolk (ninth ranked), has a score of 55.5, which is 16.5 above Lyme, the town that placed number one. Eliminating the categories of Economy and Cost reduces this difference to 14.5 of which crime accounts for a score of 9.0 and education 3.5. Yet Norfolk has FEWER major crimes than Lyme (on average two fewer per year), and with respect to education, Norfolk’s SAT scores are only two percent lower than Lyme’s!

They say that there are “lies, damned lies and statistics.” On the basis of the shoddy work presented by Connecticut Magazine, “they” are right.

 Jonathan Hirst