In response to “It comes down to morals” (letter, March 16): The problem with using religious morality as an argument is that we are not a country that is founded with religion as our basis for law (at least not anymore). It’s naive to believe that one book is the sole provider of anything good or moral in our world, and that anything going against it is wrong.

I’ll not deny that America was founded with typical Christian beliefs for its time. However, “acceptable” beliefs in that time also included burning women at the stake and keeping slaves. How long will it be before everyone looks back on gay rights or gays in the military and says, “Well, we’ve become more enlightened now”?

The bottom line, which still has yet to be disputed in a way that doesn’t use the Bible as some sort of crutch in lieu of rational thought, is that, in America, everyone is more or less guaranteed certain liberties as long as those rights don’t infringe upon others in a malign way. Homosexuals are allowed to be homosexuals even if some people feel it’s immoral, according to our Founding Fathers.

To me, it’s starting to sound more and more as though some people believe their personal religious beliefs matter more than some people’s ways of life (a way of life that has been around longer than Christianity; check it out: A lot of Spartans were bisexual or gay).

It’s embarrassing, as an American, that some of our fellow soldiers, airmen and sailors must act as if they’re ashamed of themselves in order to make some others in the service feel better about themselves.

Senior Airman Evan ClymerCamp Cropper, Iraq

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