Dear Editor,

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I wholeheartedly agree with Mark Wignall’s statement, “Gays cannot be healed by religion”, in his column of June 3.

Religion is really a set of man-made rules given to man with the hope of “getting right with their maker”. A believer or Christian is someone who has

come to the realisation that there is nothing he can do to gain a right relationship with his maker.

The Pharisees and other religious zealots in the time of Jesus used to adhere slavishly to every minute detail of the Old Testament laws, thinking that it would garner them a right standing with their creator. It did not, and will never do so. In one confrontation with the “religious establishment” of his day, Jesus said to them:

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” – John 5:39 – 40

So, Mr Wignall, we Christians believe, follow and place our faith and hope in a person – namely, the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, Mr Wignall, allow me to address specifically what seems a level of arrogance, ignorance and a false sense of authoritativeness that I have picked up from your writings on Sunday. What has been your own experience with regard to the “power of Christ”? Have you been “delivered from” any bad situation or malady? What personal testimony do you have of being rescued from some danger or certain death with no rational explanation as to how or why? Mr Wignall, let me be bold enough to answer for you. You have had no experience in witnessing or personally benefiting from the power of Christ. Therefore, you have no authority to “quote from the sidelines” that the power of Christ is foolishness. Millions of people the world over have and are still experiencing Christ’s power in their lives every day.

Don’t read my letter as a “diss”, Mr Wignall. You were created in God’s image and therefore I have to respect you as God’s own creation. But you must be made to understand your place in the scheme of things. We human beings often pretend to know a lot and in reality we know very little.

My own career is in media and I don’t pretend to know a lot about dentistry or carpentry. I have only a basic understanding (from a distance). Until you come to know Jesus and our creator on a personal level and not from a platform of self-pride and arrogance, your knowledge of him and his power will always be guesswork.

You are not all-knowing, Mr Wignall, and on occasions have admitted an error. An example was your confident “prediction” of the winner of the December 2011 general election.

Clearly if you were dead wrong about that, Mr Wignall, it stands to reason that you could also be wrong about the power of Christ to heal anyone of any malady, including homosexuality.

Maurice D Brown

mozizb@yahoo.com