Re: rumor control

["Gregory Dickison" <gdickison@moscow.com>]

Dear Visioneers:

My thanks to the Douglases et alia who have once again made this forum
interesting. The lively debates inspired me to once again subscribe, after a
several-year haitus. And no sooner do I get back on the mailing list than
what do I find? My name being loosely bantied about. I am thus compelled by
strong family pride, if not a want of good sense, to throw in my two or so
bits. You have no one to blame but Miss Huskey.

>
> I remember a public debate some years ago, during the fight over
Proposition
> One, in which Greg Dickison, an attorney and frequent contributor to
> *Credenda Agenda,* the magazine edited by Doug Jones, advocated stoning as
an
> appropriate (and biblically sanctioned) punishment for gays and lesbians.
Is
> execution the ultimate goal for those of us who don't accept Doug's
> exhortation to "abandon fruitlessness?"
>
> Dickison also writes:  "Reforming the State is not about forcing people to
be
> Christians. But it is about forcing people to outwardly conform to a
> Christian standard and about protecting the Christian religion. . . .
Again,
> the question is not whether we can legislate morality. Of course we can.
The
> question is, which morality will be legislated? The unchangeable standards
of
> God's holy Word? Or the passing fads of political correctness?"  (Greg
> Dickison, "Nursing Fathers," *Credenda Agenda* 12:3.)


Miss Huskey accurately recalled the gist, if not the details, of the forum
several years ago. What I most vividly recall from that forum was a young
lady who approached me afterwards and tried to rip me several new orifices
because she disagreed with my position. I have never heard so much
hate-speech in my life. When Mr. Wilson asked her if she loved her neighbor,
she stormed off in a huff. But to return to Miss Huskey's point, during the
Q&A, someone remarked to me, in an obvious attempt at Christian-bating, that
the Bible calls for the death penalty for male homosexuality. The tactic is
to get the Christian to start hedging at one point of Scripture, and then,
when he does, point out the inconsistency of holding randomly to other
points. I wasn't going to play along, so my response to the observation was
something to the effect of, "yeah, so what?"

The point made very clear by the observer was that the biblical paradigm was
in conflict with current moral standards. If I said that Muslim
fundamentalist whackos who fly airplanes into skyscrapers and kill thousands
of innocent civilians should be shot; or that perverts who kidnap, torture,
rape and kill 9-year-old girls should be strung up, it would pass almost
without comment. But when I express even mild disagreement with
homosexuality as a legitmate lifestyle, let alone call for any sanction, the
arbiters of the morals of modernity call for my head. It is not the idea of
punishment that bothers you, it is what gets punished. And, I would chime in
with Mr. Wilson, who gets to decide?

>
> Moscow, Latah County, and the state of Idaho offer little protection for
> those citizens who are gay or lesbian:  there are no laws or policies
> protecting our employment, our housing, or our families.  We can be fired
or
> evicted without any other cause than our sexual orientation; should we be
> detected--in the privacy of our own homes, shades drawn, alone--engaging
in
> consensual sexual activity, we can be convicted of a felony.  At present,
> though, we can breathe.  I view with grave concern any attempt
> to repeal that particular opportunity.

Miss Huskey is only correct in theory that you can be convicted of a felony.
While homosexuality is against the law, the current morality police are
willing to give the felons a pass in order to pursue the misdemeanants whose
causes have not yet merited federal protection. If the miscreants who
recently got into so much hot water for pilfering the gay-pride flag only
had the presence of mind to plead that they were part of the Frat Boys
Drinking and Thieving Alliance, and that they were merely trying to overturn
archaic moral codes against taking other people's stuff while three sheets
to the wind and to increase awareness of their alternative lifestyle, and
that they had chosen the flag in question as a target because they knew
their fellow oppressed peoples would understand, the whole little
misunderstanding could have been cleared up with much less fuss. But, alas,
they were merely drunken frat boys with a vague sense of patriotism fueled
by too much Jack Daniels, and since they picked the wrong lifestyle group to
mess with, they were prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And while all
the community was apparently shocked at their misdemeanors, no one seemed to
notice that the university-sanctioned victim club was promoting high crimes.
Curiouser and curiouser.

Thank you for the great reading, and the opportunity to respond.

Heigh-o, Rosinante!

Gregory C. Dickison
Lawyer & Counselor at Law
Post Office Box 8846
312 South Main Street
Moscow, Idaho 83843
(208) 882-4009