Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-vision.CDN Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!manis From: manis@ubc-vision.CDN (Vincent Manis) Newsgroups: net.motss,net.philosophy Subject: Re: "Justifying" beliefs based on "western moral tradition" Message-ID: <512@ubc-vision.CDN> Date: Wed, 15-Aug-84 23:30:01 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.512 Posted: Wed Aug 15 23:30:01 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Aug-84 07:26:19 EDT References: <3107@decwrl.UUCP>, <971@pyuxn.UUCP> Lines: 29 Western moral tradition, anyone? I'll stand by it any time. Witch Organization: UBC Vision, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 25 trials and other monstrosities are certainly a part of our tradition, but so too is an increasing understanding of the humanity of all people. Slavery is a reprehensible part of our heritage, but the abolition of slavery is also a part of our tradition. By "W.M.T.", anti-gay people generally mean a few random passages taken out of context. Far too often, people throw out the babies and keep the bathwater. I'm suspicious of arguments based on "inherent sexuality". They lead to all kinds of problems. For example, the United Church of Canada recently rejected a proposal to permit the ordination of open gays and lesbians. One argument that was advanced was that the proposers had not done enough to prove that conversion (aka cure) was impossible. Now, if one is really going to accept various forms of sexuality on an equal plane, it makes little sense to say that same sex sexuality is ok because gays/lesbians can't be "cured". We as a society have to learn to get past labelling. Neither homo- nor heterosexuality is intrinsically good or bad; the value judgements should be attached to the ways in which we deal with sexuality. I have yet to see any logically sensible argument which really proves the inherent superiority of heterosexuality. To find even "enlightened" people operating on this sort of unspoken, unquestioned assumption is discouraging.