POINT:

I have enjoyed both issues of the POINT I have seen. It is refreshing to read a liberal voice in the Columbia area. I hope that you continue publishing the POINT.

Peace,

Terry Shaw, Columbia

POINT:

Just came across your website. INCREDIBLE. It's about time someone in South Carolina had the guts to say what needs to be heard. Thank you for helping to enlighten the masses.

Ken Fortenberry

To the Editor:

Thousands of Southern Baptist Churches across America taught in their Sunday School classes this weekend that gay Americans can -- and should -- change their orientation. There are two important facts that they should know.

First, the Bible never condemns gay men and women or their acts. Never. Modern-day Bibles have unfortunately mistranslated the original Greek and Hebrew texts, which do not ever even MENTION homosexuality, since the concept was completely unknown to them. The word didn't even appear in Bibles until the 1940s. There are, in actuality, no references at all to gay men and women in the original texts of the Bible. Not one.

Second, the American Psychiatric Association recently declared that "reparative" or "conversion" therapy -- the idea that a gay man or woman can be "cured" and become straight -- is both dangerous and unethical. The APA says that the potential risks of this therapy include depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.

Unfortunately, as long as Bibles with mistranslations are around, some people will continue to indulge in sound-bite religion and will claim God disapproves of gay Americans. But the Bible was never intended to be a weapon.