In response to Portsmouth City Councilman Kevin Johnson’s unwarranted and illogal attack on the faith and belief of Mayor David Malone I have this to say: Just as in most arguments against those of faith, Mr. Johnson tried to use his supposed superior intellect and manipulation to sway Mayor Malone. After Malone responded to Johnson with the fact that he is Christian and the final authority in this matter to him comes from God himself and not the “logic” of man, Johnson responded with attacks and misuse of scripture to try to feed his own desire to impose his belief upon society and Malone. Ignoring the ridiculous argument by Johnson that we can only attract “intelligent” people and economic boom to our area if we are “gay marriage” friendly or as he chose to put it an “equality environment.” In most cases (as he himself stated) these types of “equality environments” are already in place inside the employers guidelines.

What really gets me is Mr. Johsnon trying to use (and grossly misinterpreting) scripture to prove his point against Mayor Malone. Johnson chose to use the famous one used by liberals to say that God even wanted to be left out of the government: “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” So let’s use Mr. Johnson’ own “intelligence” on him here: Where did marriage come from? From the state or from God? Answer: God. This is an institution created, instilled and defined by God as being one man and one woman. So let’s render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. Leave marraige alone.

As for Mr. Johnson’s attempt to paint the picture of the institution of marriage being cursed. It is not marriage that is cursed, it’s those who choose to misuse it and ignore the Bible’s warnings against divorce that have brought a bad reflection on this institution. The reason there are so many divorces and single-parent homes is not because of a failure of heterosexual relationships but because of the choosing of these individuals to ignore the instruction and desire of God’s intent for this Holy institution in exchange for their own desires. Just as you choose to do in your desire to impose your personal desires upon the institution. This is the audacity of man, to place himself (or government) above God in deciding these matters, when this happens, society will fail and so will the nation that follows this path.

Eddie Combs

Minford