Herald's humanism contrary to vision

The Herald should abandon H.C. Paddock's vision statement, at least the part about fearing God. The Our View article, “Hard lessons about hateful speech,” purveyed a secular humanist view that is inconsistent with fearing God and is representative of a growing trend of recent opinions.

The article opinioned that the St. Charles North High School students who wore shirts that quoted a Bible passage about homosexuality constituted, “hate speech” how very predictable. Contemporary societal opinion, steeped in humanism, insists on a tolerance that is a one-way street. Those advocating Biblical values are viewed as making a “going the wrong way offense.”

Secular humanism, rooted in relativism approaches the problems of human nature 180 degrees opposite Christianity. A Humanist answer for those who are outside the norm is to teach society that the anomaly should be normative and since society defines norms what was once an anomaly becomes normalized.

The Biblical approach is rooted in the absolute person of God, not society's collective views, and by his standard points out error so that we may recognize our need for the cure. To avoid pointing out what's wrong would disallow an individual the opportunity to recognize his or her need for the cure - Christ Jesus. It would be like watching a child walk into a busy street but doing nothing to turn him around. From a Christian point of view, a policy of issue avoidance or placation would be hateful because it's harmful.

In short, what the high school students did wasn't hate speech, but was in keeping with Christian principles which contemporary humanism misunderstands. If the Herald continues espousing humanism but still desires to keep in its vision statement a remnant of the notion of God, may I suggest the following verse to draw from: 2 Timothy 4:3.

Brian Van Dine

Carol Stream