Editor:
Ferndale continues to reveal itself as a hotspot for bigotry in Humboldt County and it must end. This week St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church displayed on its marquee, “Hurt by LGBT culture? Healing here” due to the occurrence of Pride Month in the United States.
After several instances over the years, this display of homophobia indicates that there is more than just a racism problem in Ferndale, but a larger issue of general bigotry towards minority groups. At the end of the day, people are more inclined to spend their money and live in an environment in which bigotry is not present than an environment in which it is. If this behavior continues, it is just going to hurt the small businesses that rely upon non-residents contributing to Ferndale’s overall economy. It will eventually affect Ferndale Elementary and Ferndale High schools, for people will look to send their children to other schools that do not have bigotry present in the town in which they operate. People will eventually feel unsafe and move out of town due to the lack of response to instances of bigotry. The continued accumulation of bigoted instances in Ferndale is an economic issue, and it is long past due that leaders in the community realize this.
It is ultimately the Ferndale City Council’s responsibility to address this bigotry head-on. Therefore, I am calling on Mayor Don Hidley, Vice Mayor Stephen Avis, Councilmember Robin Smith, Councilmember Leonard Lund and Councilmember Phillip Ostler to not only release a statement condemning bigotry in Ferndale but to come up with comprehensive policies to effectively address bigotry in Ferndale because whatever they are doing now is not working. If we want Ferndale to have a brighter future, then it must not be left up to community members to address these issues.
Basil Piazza, Ferndale
This article appears in Still Wild.
Jesus must be spinning in heaven knowing what atrocities have been connected to Christ-ianity. So many have created God’s nature in their own angry and vengeful image, especially the part insisting that ‘God hates ______’, etcetera.
What angers me is the hypocrisy of those who claim to follow a faith yet practice pretty much its opposite, especially as elected officials/leaders. For example, many conservatives insist upon cutting back, if not ending, the still much-needed COVID government support; yet they equally insist upon continuing, if not increasing, the huge annual subsidies for profitable big corporations.
I’d suggest they might seek out a faith that’s more reflective of their own true values and behavior. Sometimes I wonder whether there are institutional Christians (I mean the fans of the Old Testament angry-vengeful creator, etcetera) who would prefer that Jesus had not been so publicly contrary to contemporary conservative values thus politics. I can picture them generally finding inconvenient, if not annoying, having to try reconciling the conspicuously contradictory fundamental nature, teachings and practices of the New Testament’s Jesus with those of the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s Creator.
From my understanding, the Jewish people insisted on a messiah whose nature is of the unambiguously fire-and-brimstone angry-God condemnation kind of creator that’s quite befitting of our Old Testament, Torah and Quran. Judaism’s version of messiah is essentially one who will come liberate his people from their enemies, which logically consists of some form of violence, before ruling over every nation on Earth. This Judaic facet left even John the Baptist, who believed in Jesus as the savior, troubled by Jesus’ version of Messiah, notably his revolutionary teaching of non-violently offering the other cheek as the proper response to being physically assaulted by one’s enemy.
It’s doubtful Christ was at all the hating type.