Letter: Narrow View of Families Reveals Lack of Respect
Sioux Falls Argus Leader, May 24, 1999
Box 5034,Sioux Falls, SD 57117
Fax: 605-331-2340 or 605-331-2294
Email: editor@argusleader.com
In his letter in the Argus Leader, the Rev. David E. Den Haan objects to the use of the
word "family" by nontraditional groups such as a single mother, her child and
two gay male friends, or a gay married couple. To Den Haan, the only family is a married
man and woman and their children.
However, according to Webster’s dictionary, family originally meant "all the
people living in the same house; household." The current concept of a family being a
married couple and their children has evolved from the original meaning as social custom
has moved away from larger group "families" to the so-called "nuclear
family."
Den Haan’s objection to older usages of family coming back into use reminds one of
the word Sodomite. Under contemporary definition, the word denotes a person who engages in
"unnatural" sex. However, if one studies the biblical story of Sodom, the word
Sodomite, which means a person from Sodom, or a person who behaves like a person from
Sodom, one finds that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their lack of hospitality,
their greed, not for homosexuality, as is often mistakenly indicated.
Which makes the good Rev. Den Haan a Sodomite as he clearly shows his lack of
hospitality to others who are different from himself.
– Ken C. Scott, Honolulu, Hawaii
kenwood69@juno.com
[History] [News] [Home]
