Rebuttals confirm his original conclusions on religion

I want to thank Mr. Cruz (T.O. Acorn letters, July 14, “Letter writer puts no priority on morality”) and Mr. Patterson (T.O. Acorn letters, July 14, “Religious people cannot deny their belief in God”) for lending credence to and providing substantiation for my viewpoints on religion and homosexuality. And yes, Mr. Patterson, that doctoral degree that you so mockingly referred to fits prominently into my rebuttal.

I stated, based on historical analysis, that when religion dominates the public commonwealth—especially when one religion in particular predominates—a downward sliding scale of intolerance rears its ugly and often violent and genocidal head.

Mr. Cruz, through his equating traditional values with Christianity only, relegates all other religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) to a moral relativism that I find to be exclusionary and prejudicial. I, unlike Mr. Cruz, view all religions as morally equal, and thus look to unite, rather than divide.

If I am guilty of promulgating moral equivalence across a landscape of diverse religious beliefs to the exclusion of dominance by one religion, then I stand guilty as charged—and yes, Mr. Cruz, I am hopeful that millions of Americans will flock to my inclusive banner.   Research across the disciplines of biology, medicine, history, archaeology and cultural demographics (and not an isolated poll that can be manipulated in innumerable ways or is reflective of a cipher of time in the ratingsdriven universe of polling numbers) has consistently demonstrated over three millennium that homosexuality, across all ethnicities, cultures and nations, has consistently remained between 3 and 5 percent.   And marriage, Mr. Patterson, as Stephanie Coontz historically proves in her new book “Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage,” has “not only gone through a number of evolutions, but we would be remiss to think that it was ever a stable institution.”

And that evolution, in spite of your best efforts to the contrary, will hopefully progress to include everyone in God’s tent of “I Created All People.” Marc Rogers, PhD Thousand Oaks