[mlizzy]

Dad should like this! /s

[mlizzy]

Oh, yeah, Dan Cathy made him do it..

[FlingWingFlyer]

Maybe he should have just told his father that he was a homosexual and let it go at that. “Gay” conjures up a lot of wacky and spooky images in a person’s mind.

[Lancey Howard]

Yes, I can certainly understand why the Dad would be heartbroken. I do not agree, however, that a total abandonment or disownment is the way to go.

[Darteaus94025]

It took a log of courage for his father to write that letter.

[jtal]

how gay

[cardinal4]

A little off topic, but have you ever been on reddit? Those loons make newsvine seem centrist..

[AD from SpringBay]

Sex is something a person has, it is not who they are. This entire problem with sexuality as identity should be understood as a mental illness.

[JRandomFreeper]

If it hurts, don't do that.

/johnny

[Uncle Slayton]

Too bad there are not more strong fathers such as this brave man who would put his principles before his Sodomite Son.

[RIghtwardHo]

I refuse to judge someone else’s family.

[ConservativeMind]

It is the dad’s choice to do this. Frankly, it is understandable, especially if the dad is a Christian.

My own father did this to me when I was an early teen, simply because I was the only one to stand up to his crud (abuse). He recently died, leaving the estate to his live-in floozy girlfriend (who wound up being investigated for his death) while leaving nothing to the rest of us.

I have only been at peace with the result since he died. My wife, sisters, and my divorced mother are happier than ever, too.

If it’s your money, you should be able to squander or invest it however you desire.

[Ezekiel]

What I know is that this "James" decided to make public a private letter, while providing only his side of this story. Conveniently for James, this makes his father look like a very bad man, a real homophobe just like that intolerant Cathy character.

"James" has a need to pit the whole world against his father with this one-sided tale of woe.

Therefore, I don't trust this "James". He comes off as a manipulative, deceptive drama queen.

[OrangeHoof]

I had to write a similar letter to my younger brother when he decided to announce he was gay. I tried not to be harsh or to cut off all communication but I did make clear what scripture had to say and advise him not to "come out" around my sister and her children.

He doesn't speak to us much but I did help fly him to my mother's funeral and pay for his lodging and meals so surely he realizes I am not cutting him off however I think many gays become hypersensitive to slights and interpret even minor conflicts or silence as "hate" when it isn't so. It's as if they can't wait to find any confirmation of "hate" from straights as somehow justification for their own nastiness and persecution complex.

My advice to anyone who is convinced by faith that homosexuality is wrong and yet must deal with a family member who comes out is to a) stand firm in what Scripture says but b) understand that we are all sinners and do your best to accept the fallen without embracing their lifestyle.

[Txngal]

So here’s the thing I don’t get. Why is it okay for the son to be gay but it’s not okay for the father to stick to his convictions? And why is a vanity posted from Reddit considered “real news”?

[ansel12]

This happened five years ago.

[pops88]

And we’re all taking it on face value that it was really written by his father? My older sisters taught me the meaning of “gullible” at a young age. I’m taking it with a huge dose of skepticism his father actually wrote this.

[TigerClaws]

Fake letter from drama queen seeking sympathy for political gain.

[Casie]

I do not know a single father/son relationship that does not have some sort of conflict in it somewhere. Some can work it out, some can not. Its just a shame that this son decided to make such a display of his father's last words to him.

It doesn't take a lot to read between the lines and see a father that feels shattered with disappointment and fear. He will never get to meet his new daughter-in-law. He will never be Gramps or Paw-Paw to some wonderful little tyke. And he will always fear for his son's physical health and spiritual well-being.

Perhaps if this son was not so self absorbed and happy to wallow in his self pity and drama, he may have been able to feel his father's pain and attempt to bridge the gap... instead of flying his gay agenda flag on the back of his father's sincere letter.

[Marcella]

Three boys out of my son’s high school graduating class of a couple of hundred kids, were homosexual. All three died with AIDS. Their lives were gone in their early 20s. What a great lifestyle they had.

If I had a grown child who was homosexual, he/she could not come to my house. That child would have made a choice and I would make a choice.

[fr_freak]

This whole "debate" has been framed to benefit the left-wing pro-homosexual people. First, having attraction to members of the same sex does not make you a member of some separate race of people. It means you are a regular person with a sexual disorder. Referring to people as "gay" in the same way some people are white, some black, some asian, etc. frames the entire debate as if homosexuals should be treated as a separate race of people rather than as human beings with a disorder. That is wrong, and every time we, as conservatives, play into that narrative, we already surrender the debate.

It is easy for kids these days to be brainwashed into thinking that "gay rights" is a civil rights issue when we allow gays to thought of as a separate race. After all, if blacks can't help being black and they suffered through slavery and Jim Crow, then why wouldn't we view gays the same way? But once you reframe the debate to where homosexuals are regular people, except they have a sexual disorder, then the entire concept of a civil rights struggle goes away. As long as we treat them and view them as a separate race of people, all of the civil rights arguments stay in place, and those false arguments are used to make the younger generation sympathetic toward all gay causes.

With regards to this father's letter, if we assume it to be true and accurate (what grown man prints a letter like this? It looks like something a kid would write), it should be seen this way: if the son had come to his father and said "Dad, I am struggling with a sexual attraction to men" the father would most likely have been alarmed and would have looked for ways to fix or avert the problem, rather than disowning his son. However, when the son says "I'm coming out officially and declaring myself GAY", this implies that not only does the son have a sexual attraction to men, but that HE HAS EMBRACED not only the sexual nature, but the label and the lifestyle. This is the kid telling his dad that he has thought it over and decided that homosexual behavior is the way to go, and he is going to embrace it fully. Simply having the feelings is not grounds for disowning, but MAKING A DECISION TO EMBRACE A LIFESTYLE is.

I see the kid's official coming out message as sort of an in-your-face challenge to the dad, daring him to reject the kid's choice. And, in doing so, the kid actually betrays the father because he puts the father in a position of either accepting the homosexual lifestyle or rejecting his son. It's the Devil's choice: either 1) embrace homosexuality as normal and healthy and discard your own beliefs, or 2) look like an a-hole for rejecting your son (especially when the son posts your letter on the internet). The son is responsible for this whole mess, and kudos to the dad for making what would inevitably be the harder choice: going against the politically correct, pop-culture opinion. After all, we saw what the Left tried to do to Dan Cathy after he merely expressed his beliefs. The dad here knew he faced the same potential disfavor and harassment.