This is in response to Cal Thomas’ column, printed May 21.

As the daughter of an evangelical minister, the wife of a liberal protestant minister and the mother of a gay son, I was struck, once again, by the freedoms conservative Christians such as Thomas take to interpret the Bible for all Christians.

There are many Christians, including President Barack Obama, who do not interpret the Bible in the same literal way as Thomas. Apparently, he feels that he is justified in declaring them “less Christian” than himself.

Anyone who has read the Bible, even casually, knows that there are concepts in the Bible that have been discarded by Christians, including conservative Christians, as not applicable in this day and time. Some examples are multiple wives, slavery, the justified wartime killing of all men, women and children, required apparel (such as head covering in church), etc.

So how do Christians decide which parts of the Bible to use to guide their life decisions? It is a matter of conscience, is it not? Can we leave it up to each individual Christian to decide for themselves what the Bible is teaching them?

Thomas mentioned “the gospel” in his column headline, and, it should be noted for the record, that there is not one word in any of the gospels describing homosexuality as being sinful or unacceptable to God.

As all Christians know, we are admonished by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount to “judge not lest ye be judged.”

I personally use this as one of the guiding principles of my Christian life and I am always baffled when people are comfortable judging others based on their individual interpretation of the Bible.

Judith Taylor, Turner

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