ustxtxb_obs_1993_05_21_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. SINCE 1954 Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Editor: Louis Dubose Associate Editor: James Cullen Layout and Design: Peter Szymczak, Diana Paciocco Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka Bad-Bills Girl: Mary O’Grady Editorial Intern: Carmen Garcia. Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen Hosmer, Steven Keliman, Michael King, Deborah Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh. Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hiriterlang, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Executive Assistant: Gail Woods Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Development Consultant: Frances Barton SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. copyrighted. 01992. is published biweekly except for a three-week interval 477-0746. Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. THE TEXAS bse ever Common Ground I appreciated Mr. Palonio’s article on the loyalty of friends \(See “The Betrayal of to see more of the same. I, too, have questions about the positions taken by Senator Krueger, and am baffled by his performance to date. But as Mr. Palomo moved on his writing, moving toward a plea for more homosexual men and women to publicly declare their sexual orientation, I have to differ with his reading of circumstances and his understanding of Christian values. “Barton’s view \(hate-mongering and endorsement of institutionalized religion, specifically mainstream Christianity.” In fact, every national and synodical statement made by my church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America \(and every mainstream Protestant and Catholic statecondemned the violence and social penalties that homosexuals have suffered. To single. out any group for hatred is contrary to Christian values, and our churches have consistently condemned hatred directed toward homosexuals. Granted, there is some philosophical difficulty in the teaching about ‘loving the , sinner, but hating the sin,’ but even in those documents which have condemned sexual relations between persons of the same sex, the case has always been clearly made that this is not license for any fofrn of violence or gaybashing by anyone, least of all church folk. Mr. Palomo suggested that homosexuals. must “convince ourselves that our humanity makes us good regardless of whom we sleep with.” This is in the, context of talking about fair rules. The fact is, Christianity and Christian churches have a hard time dealing with homosexuality, because we don’t have many rules to go by, and the attempt to be fair would require at the minimum that homosexuals be held to at least the same level of behavior and accountability as heterosexuals. That means lifelong fidelity to one partner, or as our culture has chosen to interpret that, at least fidelity in a system of serial monogamy, sanctioned by marriage or at least long-term commitments of mutual sexual fidelity.. It is simply unacceptable to say that a person’s humanity “makes us good regardless of whom we sleep with.” In orthodox Christian theology, a person’s humanity does not ever make us good. Furthermore, orthodox Christianity \(and limiting “whom we sleep with.” For Christians, sexual fidelity is an absolute requirement for all human beings. Without fail, infidelity is condemned in heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. And here is where Mr. Palomo could perform a service to the homosexual community as well as open a communication link to orthodox Christians. If he, and more spokesmen for homosexuality, would appeal to the homosexual community for a standard of monogamous behavior, and unequivocally condemn homosexual promiscuity apparent in both clinical studies and anecdotal sources, then progress could be made in terms of mutual understanding based on shared values. The alternative, which is to expect churches to accept and bless a promiscuous lifestyle with no boundaries or limitations, is to’ set up a situation of necessarily hostile conflict and opposition. These are bounds beyond which no orthodox church can go without giving up all claims to historic Christian practice and values. If. Christian churches \(and the larger pubsexual morality within homosexuality, and see that morality based on some system of monogamous relationships, then some of the emotional barriers would begin to fall to . acceptance of homosexuals in society. Homosexual transmission of AIDS and other STDs would be diminished and a framework for sexual morality acceptable to all could be laid, at which time questions of intolerance and hatred could be more profitably discussed. Wayne Walther Austin Turn Away Wrath I am very ANGRY at you for not endorsing Bob Krueger. Sure, Angel [Jose Angel Gutierrez] has more ideas like mine but haven’t you learned anything about splitting our votes? We did that and got John Tower and Phil Gramm. Lets try to back up Ann Richards and Bill Clinton instead of squabbling over all the differences we have. Louise B. Raggio Dallas Editor’s Note: As Senator Krueger might reply, with a verse from King Lear, “Touch me with noble anger.” Oh, would that he could. See the runoff endorsement elsewhere in this issue. DIALOGUE 2 MAY 21, 1993