Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP James L. Holly, M.D. Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP


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Why we need principles

Principles allow us to be consistent and true to our beliefs even in the most difficult circumstances.

Without principles, emotions can cause us to embrace error in our outrage against other things.  

The following is a letter, I wrote to the Beaumont Enterprise, 29 years ago.  It was in response to a Dallas Judge who sentenced a man to a minimum prison term for the murdering of two men.  

His rationale?  The man had killed two homosexuals.  Dallas church leaders applauded the judge for “taking a stand against homosexuality.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I repeat this letter here because we are still struggling with the moral and ethical questions, 29 years later.

“’‘Judge Takes Stand For Murder’  by James L. Holly, MD  December 23, 1988

“It was inevitable.  It is regrettable, but it should not be surprising.  The Beaumont Enterprise, in its Thursday, December 22, 1988, edition contains an article entitled, ‘Judge's statements divide Dallas church leaders.’  Reverend Don Skelton is quoted as saying, ‘They're in favor of the stand the judge has taken to sodomy.’

“The ethical infantilism of that statement is incredible.  The judge, who gave a light sentence to a man who murdered two homosexuals, did not take a stand against sodomy, he took a stand for murder.  There are only a few sins that are more offensive to God, according to His Word, than sodomy.  Even calling it ‘gay’ doesn’t diminish the evil of this practice. Nevertheless, let it be clear to all, religious and irreligious, Christian and non-Christian, murder is one of those sins that God hates more than sodomy.

“Having recently read William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion: Alone, 1932 - 1940, the horror and reality of Nazism is keen in my mind.  Yet the solution to Nazism was not and is not the adoption of their methods.  The murdering of Hitler's Brown Shirts by the legitimate government of Germany would have only institutionalized the debauchery of the Holocaust.

“Judge Jack Hampton has attempted to institutionalize the madness of the tyranny of the individual.  If you don't like someone and/or don't like what they do, just shoot them.  If enough people don't like what they are and/or what they do, then you can be excused.  The moral relativism of Judge Hampton's decision and statements demands courageous rejection by conservative Christian leaders.

“Religious leaders should be wise enough to recognize that this mentality is more dangerous to the values of Christianity than the immorality, the ungodliness and the wickedness of ‘men cruising the streets looking for a young boy to pick up.’  How uncomfortable I personally would be locked arm-in-arm with homosexuals, marching against a court of law in our country.  Unfortunately, anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and who believes that the Bible is God's Inerrant Word, would have no other choice in this particular situation.

“If sodomy continues to be accepted as an ‘alternate life style’ this country may fall.  If Judge Hampton's judicial philosophy and anti-Christian ethic is accepted, it has already fallen.”

James (Larry) Holly, M.D.