COURAGEOUS PROTEST

COURAGEOUS PROTEST

Tom Gross
Published: Sunday, April 11, 1999
Section: COMMENTARY

Even those opposed to the idea of homosexual marriage must be embarrassed by the ill-conceived logic of Jacqueline Jordan's April 5 letter, "Obeying the law." She characterizes the Methodist Church's conviction of Rev. Gregory Dell for disobeying the church's proscription against blessing homosexual unions as the "black-and-white rule of law" prevailing over "moral relativism." She obviously doesn't appreciate the sincere sacrifice Rev. Dell made to protest what he views as an unjust law within a Christian tradition to which he has devoted his life.

Ms. Jordan says, "There must be adherence to rules or there will be a breakdown of society." Does she also wish that Rosa Parks had never challenged the law that said she must give up her seat on the bus for a white rider? Should Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have meekly obeyed the laws that said blacks could not eat in "whites-only" restaurants? Should Nelson Mandela have humbly accepted apartheid as the "law of the land" and done nothing to challenge it? And Ms. Jordan apparently believes our country would be better off if those American patriots hadn't dumped all that tea into Boston Harbor.

These protests have given us models of courage and examples of strength of character. And far from causing a breakdown of society, they have furthered the ideals of democracy.

It is a sign of intellectual laziness and an unwillingness to honestly consider all sides of an issue to so quickly dismiss a meaningful protest as invalid simply because it doesn't fit the poorly understood and frequently misapplied concept of so-called "moral relativism."

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