Disgusted by editorial
Birney Imes, I am disgusted at you and your editorial staff’s attempt at a hatchet job on Christian judges who oppose gay marriage. Your conclusion is that anyone who opposes same sex-marriage is unfit to be a judge. You proclaim this as an executive order since the Supreme Court has made it law.
I am surprised that you have lived in Columbus most of your life and you have no concept of your readership or how they live. Maybe you look down from your ivory tower and see the peasants as ants waiting for your next executive order so we will know what to think. Marriage is God-ordained and should be performed by a pastor. Gays and atheists may use anyone they choose as long as that person is not forced to perform the ceremony.
Using your logic and that of your editorial board with infinite wisdom you should run a complete series on abortion! Your editorial board should brainstorm this issue and convince your readers that Mississippi should have a law that any doctor who refuses to perform abortions should not have a medical license in the state of Mississippi.
You have had since 1973 Roe vs. Wade to craft your wisdom on this. Remember it is the law that abortions can be performed on demand. Therefore why should doctors be above the law and not judges as you have suggested. You should insist that any doctor who wishes to practice medicine in the state of Mississippi must perform abortions. See what a great state we could become if everybody obeyed the law. I assume that you also think that any doctor who refuses to perform abortions is unfit to be a doctor. Sounds asinine when you think about it. Don’t it?
I am a Christian and to your staff I expect to be called “just another bigot.”
Harold W. Lewis
Columbus
Birney Imes replies: The writer mischaracterizes our position. We took to task in our July 14 editorial (“Law, not personal beliefs, should guide judges’ actions”) judges who have performed marriages in the past and now refuse to do so in light of the Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. From the editorial: “It is important to remember the marriages judges perform are civil ceremonies, not religious. As such, a judge’s personal religious views are irrelevant. A judge is expected to fulfill the law of the land without prejudice.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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