To the editor:

After reading Leonard Pitts’ column in last Thursday’s Journal-World, I took his advice and watched the YouTube speech young Christian Matthew Vines recently gave to a church in Wichita.

Vines faced the dilemma of many gay Christians, but instead of denying either his faith or his sexuality, he took a courageous third route: a deep examination of the Bible. After two years of exhaustive research, his conclusions are revelatory; of the six verses that supposedly condemn homosexuality, one is part of the Levitical Laws modern Christians are not bound by, two are a biased mistranslation of Greek, and the rest are warnings against excessive lust in general. Loving gay relationships are not censured by the Bible. His work is fantastic scholarship as well as a moving sermon, and I encourage everyone to listen to it, even if you think you will disagree.