Editor:

Terry Baker is to be commended for his insightful article explaining in depth the concept of “marriage” as understood by the LDS church (“Marriage is central to God’s plan for humanity, Nov. 10).

But ultimately, he failed to come to grips with the central issue in the current culture war: whether any religious entity should have the right, in violation of due process and the equal protection of the law, to define “marriage” for the whole culture.

No church should be able to force its purely religious views on the culture at large.

And this is true despite what Baker calls the “sound reasons for this seemingly restrictive traditional view of marriage,” none of which are persuasive to anyone who does not share Baker’s religious perspective.

Thus the church’s view of the traditional family setting as “the most effective way to rear a child,” is of no moment in a world where there is not one scintilla of evidence to support the idea.

Indeed, such studies suggest that children who grow up in gay households are not disadvantaged in any fashion at all.

Thomas Thompson

Alumnus