GNOSTIC: No, it isn't right

Dina Fish (Sept. 7) seems to have settled into a designer life. “I for one am Gnostic due to the fact that it’s right for me.” Not that it’s right, you understand, but it’s right for ME; right or wrong it’s what makes me comfortable. And small wonder — Gnosticism separates people into the select few who receive special knowledge (gnosis), a lower class who must be content with mere faith and the lowest class who are preoccupied with worldly cares. Fish has selected the highest class due to the fact that it’s right for her. A little ego showing there?

The basic theme of Gnosticism is that material is evil (curious, since it too is God-created), ordered cosmos had a malevolent purpose and escape into a world of freedom is the goal. Then we get into divine potencies emanating from God, Sophia (wisdom) disturbing harmony and giving birth to a “demiurge” (Jehovah), Simon of Cyrene dying on the cross in Jesus’ place, etc. etc. Heady stuff, that.

Fish quotes that “God created man in His image, which means that includes homosexuals and atheists.” That “meaning” gets hard to explain when we note that the Bible more than once condemns homosexuality as an “abomination” for which the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. We also should remember that the one sin that is specified as unforgivable is atheism; after all, how can you claim grace from One you reject? As for wrath being exclusively human, please refer to the often wrathful God of the Old Testament and Jesus’ own righteous anger as He drove the merchants out of the temple. Finally, that popular misquote of judging not: it refers to hypocrisy. Every time we point out violations of God’s commands, we’re judging — just not based on our personal gnosticisms.

Fish got one thing right: God loves all of His children. BUT He loves us too much to leave us the way we are.

HANS NEUMANN

Spirit Lake