letters

Rebecca Dodd Hollady
Tallahassee, Florida

Having just returned from a long voyage to South America and Antarctica, I hasten to tell you how happy I was to have received the Autumn 2005 issue, and to read the heartwarming tribute to Charles Haynes. I graduated in 1952, and in 2002, fifty years later, I visited the campus for the first time. Quite remarkable changes had occurred. Walking through the hallway in the basement of the old Student Union building, I saw the sign for the [Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life]. What a stunning surprise! I’ve known that I am gay since I was six years old. While at Emory, 1948–1952, I had a steady boyfriend. He was ostracized by a well-known fraternity when his brothers found out about us. There was quite a circle of like-inclined, but cautious, “underground” students at that time. We both graduated and went our ways. After Army service, I settled in the San Francisco Bay area, and have lived here with my partner for almost forty-seven years. We are registered domestic partners in California and were married on Valentine’s Day, 2004. Sadly, the California Supreme Court voided our marriage and that of more than 4,000 other gay couples. We continue to be deprived of over one thousand legal privileges enjoyed by straight couples, but like many others, we continue to struggle to rectify the injustice. It is strong-willed, honest, sincere, forthright, hard-working, devoted men and women like Charles Haynes and his partner of sixteen years that we strive to emulate.

Walter A. Nelson-Rees 52C
San Francisco, California

Because of the leftist, “politically correct”prejudice that pervades the administration and publication organs of my graduate alma mater, it is typically with amused contempt that I read the Emory Magazine when it reaches my door. On occasion, my contempt boils over into disgust. So it was with your Autumn 2005 edition, with its corrupt and mindless valorization of Mr. Charles Haynes, an out-of-the-closet, unrepentant homosexual with a background shaped “both by progressive social views and Christian principles.” I pity Mr. Haynes and others like him, who believe, via their self-serving and twisted thinking, that sodomy and true Christianity are reconcilable. I pray that he, and others like him, will awaken to the Truth before it’s too late.

In his brilliant and learned Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, in his critique of homosexuality, explains how sinful human nature tends to rationalize even the most unnatural and perilous pleasures as “natural.” In the words of Julius Caesar, “men [tend to] believe what they want to believe.”

Winston McCuen 96G 99G
West Columbia, South Carolina

It has been evident for some time, even fifty years ago when I was a student, that Emory was moving away from its foundation of teaching “Christianity.”

It is certainly very evident in the Autumn 2005 Emory Magazine (“Dude, Zen? Think again,” p. 11). In my opinion, the teaching of Buddhist teachings is totally against the principles of teaching Christ’s ways. Emory was founded by the Methodist Church, a Christian church.

My suggestion to those who are looking for new ways of healing [is to] try those that are taught in the Bible. There are many health principles that are totally overlooked by modern medicine, especially as to diet.

Praying to the Creator, Father, God through his Son, Jesus, is also a powerful method of healing. I suggest that as a Christian university you should be exploring this source instead of those of the Far East.

John R. Pinson III 55B
Camilla, Georgia