Religious beliefs do change with times

In her Opinion column of May 20, 2015, Kathleen Parker is critical of Hillary Clinton's remark that "Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed so that women can have unfettered access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth." Ms. Parker then goes on to say that "Hillary's thinking is clear: Religious beliefs have to be changed."

But Ms. Parker challenges this and declares that if we change our religious beliefs, what else will we have? Well, I'm sorry, but as history evolves and marches on, so do our religious beliefs evolve and change. Thus our Ten Commandments originally told us that we are to honor the Sabbath Day and not work thereon. Not so anymore. You can go to Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Jewel-Osco, Walgreens, our large shopping malls and any gasoline station, and there you will find many employees working on Sundays.

Also in the Bible, I Timothy 2:11-12 tells us that women shall not to be permitted to teach, shall remain silent, and be in submission. Yet as time has marched on, these religious beliefs have changed, and today we now have Katharine Jefferts Schori as the National Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church. Also in the Bible in Leviticus 20:13 we are told that if a man lies with another man as he does with a woman, both have committed an abomination, and they shall be put to death. But that religious belief has of course changed, and we do not put to death the gays in our community. In fact, we are now moving on to legalize gay marriage as our religious beliefs change.

So I believe Kathleen Parker was in error when she suggested that Hillary Clinton was wrong in saying that on occasion our religious beliefs have to be changed. In fact, our religious beliefs do have to change as time marches on, and Hillary was right.

Theodore M. Utchen

Wheaton