Dear Editor,
Vince Wetzel and Scott Mac Kay’s “discovery” of the Low Magazine distribution rack inside an air conditioning shack was quite amazing. I applaud these modern-day Hardy Boys for using their powers of “observation” to track down our stand after it was reported stolen to campus security and the La Verne Police Department.
But I must admit, it seems a little odd that Wetzel and Mac Kay were able to locate the stand when Melissa Jaunal, Low Magazine’s liaison at ULV, could not. Jaunal told us that she made the rounds on campus and even asked the Maintenance Department if the stand had been moved or seen by its personnel. It seems strange that maintenance didn’t notice the decorated stand in one of its mechanical enclosures, but super-sleuths Wetzel and Mac Kay did.
Hmmm. Could it be that the stand suddenly appeared back at the Student Center (but still out of sight) only after we published a full-page ad denouncing the theft as an act of censorship and branded those involved as cowards?
Maybe, maybe not. But either way, I’d like to thank Wetzel and Mac Kay for “discovering” the Low stand and, at the same time, denouncing our rag as “full of generalizations, high-powered propaganda and pornographic sensationalism.”
It’s compliments like that which have brought us the 15,000 student readers we have today. And we’re just getting started.
Mark Cromer
Editor, Low Magazine
Dear Editor,
For the Campus Times to say that Mel White and others like him have reconciled their orientation with the Christian faith [Oct. 13] is to know nothing of its teachings. The idea of a gay Christian is not only a distortion of Christian belief, but also an oxymoron. The presentation of White as a legitimate spokesperson of Christian ethics and theology is uninformed.
I’m not arguing the validity of homosexuality, but the validity of a Christian homosexual. Mr. White is presented as an authority on Christian theology even though that is not his area of authority; he is merely a pastor. The logical fallacy of argumentum ad vercundian was used when his views were presented. He is neither a Hebrew nor Greek scholar in order for him to exegetically explain away the written teachings of Moses and St. Paul.
The article also commits the fallacy of significance. The meaning of the word “Christian” has been changed. It is not that Christians are sinless, but they struggle and despise their sins. They do not glorify them and claim their identity through the sin. The person whom God has forgiven of any sin, say adultery, does not bask in it by describing himself as an adulterer.
Another logical fallacy used in the article is that of argumentum ad misericordiam, an appeal to pity in order to give the argument credence. The fact remains that Christian ethics and doctrine seek to identify homosexuality for what it is and then seek to bring the person into forgiveness and communion with God. It doesn’t condone the practice.
The “great cause” of White is a misrepresentation of what Christianity teaches. While writing to the church in Corinth, St. Paul lists various actions which nullify one’s identity as a Christian. Among them is homosexuality. But hope is found at the end of the list, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed.” The freedom for the homosexual is not creating God in our image, but stepping out of the dark closet and into the care of the one who created him.
D. Samuel Sarkissian
Senior
Mark Cromer