Tom Woodward of Bonney Lake, I have some issues with your recent letter (Courier-Herald, Aug. 12) about gay marriage.

If I remember my Sunday School correctly and something you seem to want to cherry pick, is that “pesky” 11th Commandment. Also that annoying speaking for God thing being outside the historical and Biblical definition of Christianity. I would also remind you of our fifth-grade history lesson about the irritating First Amendment of the Bill Of Rights which affords Americans to worship or not the way they see fit.

Which brings us around to the mistaken thought that all Americans are Christian which in fact 56 million-plus are not. I suspect there will be more if like you, judgmental Christian representatives. But if someone does not agree with your interpretation there are 33,000 different Christian denominations worldwide. So reading up on Jesus Christ from those points of view should help fill some idle time.

I think it is important to remind you that Jesus was not Christian and it is believed he lived by Leviticus 11. Do you?

And finally, your parable paraphrase about a man building his house on the shifting sands of social mores. I’m going to skip the too-numerous-to-count differences in just a short 100 years and jump to Buddhism which was widely practiced in the 6th century B.C. and Islam way back to Common Time (CD). So exactly what was built on what?

M. Thornton

Enumclaw