From: GZJohnston
Subj: Letters published by the Dartmouth Review
To: UNews
Dear Richard,
Please find attached three letters that I have sent to the Dartmouth Review campus newspaper at Dartmouth College.
In a conversation with Tyler Hendricks earlier today he said that he would like to see these letters. Tyler also thought you might be interested in them, that maybe they would be something you could use for the UNews.
Therefore, if you would be so kind as to download them to give to Tyler we would both be most grateful. Also, if you think they would be something you would like to publish, please feel free to do so.
By way of background, the Dartmouth Review is conservative college newspaper that has been challenging Dartmouth on some of the craziness that has infected that, as well as most other, college/university campuses. One of the founders of the Review worked for the old New York City Tribune and then went on to work for the Washington Times. The Review has a lot in common with us in that they are deeply concerned about the rise of immorality and the abandonment of Western cultural (Christian) values that has taken place on campus.
They published my first letter last November and subsequently published the two other letters I have sent to them. Now they are helping me to secure a speaking venue at the college in the near future. They will even help me to advertise my talk.
See for yourself what I wrote.
Thank you very much. All the very best.
ITPN,
Gunnard Johnston
Rev. Gunnard Z. Johnston
35 Andrew Street #30
Manchester, New Hampshire 03104-2417
Tel./Fax. 603.624.9474
The Dartmouth Review
P.O. Box 343
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
October 21, 1995
Dear Review:
Congratulations on your stand against homosexuality and the "National Coming Out Week." With the demise of Communism the "gay rights" issue is the latest craze on the campus scene. Like communism's failure, this aberration, too, is destined to pass. One wonders, however, how many lives will be tragically lost in this debacle, as they were under the communist nightmare. I also wonder where the local clergy stand on this issue.
Let me offer a few insights because many people appear to be confused, not the least of which are the College administration and faculty: of course homosexuality has been a universal taboo since the beginning of human history. It does not require a doctorate in biology to conclude that if homosexuality were truly natural then the end of the human race would be a guaranteed certainty. The very fact that the recent events at Dartmouth included a call to "End Heterosexism" indicates that every belief system seeks to assert itself in the face of differing belief systems.
In this case, the homosexuality believers, like their communist forebears of a hundred years ago, begin their argument against the opposition heterosexual world by demanding "equal time, equal space." This is always the first step. By asserting equal value in a democratic society, even non-believers are inclined to give them wide latitude, all in the name of "tolerance" for differing ideas. But what happens when these differing ideas not only demand their own place within the panoply of ideologies but eventually demand subjective dominance over the entire culture? Again, we need only to review the rise of communism to see how it gradually wore down the opposition to the point where it almost took over, due mainly to the steady weakening of the morals of the institutions charged with protecting culture's values.
Today, as before, we are left with only our own innate powers of discernment to distinguish what is natural and good, and what is unnatural and bad. Fortunately, those powers are great, especially if we feed them with a vigorously active and steadfast pursuit of the true and natural way. Recent arguments of the homosexual lobby have used alleged observations of homosexual behavior in the animal world. As every mother tells her children, however, just because somebody else jumps off a bridge does not mean we must do the same. Another contention often used today is the "phantom gene" argument which states that some people apparently are born with some difference in their gene structure which predisposes them toward homosexuality. Again, no such empirical proof has ever been proffered by a reputable scientific source. Even if such an anomaly was found, it would remain just that, an anomaly, a departure from the natural norm. Like cell mutations in living organisms, such events are always short-lived and they always conclude when the organism in question dies. It is never repeatable from one generation to the next.
The real reason for this rise in homosexuality is that it involves a question which has never been fully answered. That is the issue of sex and love. If we as a society continue to tolerate free-wheeling and uncommitted sexual practices on the heterosexual level, then those who wish to take it to the next extreme -- into unrestrained sexual license, be it with man, woman, child, or beast -- will always have a basis for their demands. Physical diseases like AIDS and societal diseases like shattered families are the clear warning signs that we had better straighten out our sexual mores in a hurry. To continue the reckless abandonment of personal responsibility in one's sexual life is the sure ticket to certain death.
Sincerely,
Rev. Gunnard Z. Johnston, Jr. `69
Unification Campus Ministry Association
(The following is a separate letter sent at a later date. It has been attached to this letter to make one single file.
Reverend Gunnard Z. Johnston, Jr.
35 Andrew Street #30
Manchester, New Hampshire 03104-2417
(603)624-9474
The Dartmouth Review
P.O. Box 343
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
November 25, 1995
Dear Review:
In your latest editorial by Mr. Brewer, "Ivory Tower or Football Factory?", you address several incidents of violence, both physical and verbal, not only at Dartmouth but at the other Ivies as well. These sad tragedies at America's most elite institutions of higher education simply reflect the general direction of our nation. Obviously, we have a burning hole in the moral fabric that once bound together the institutions that are charged to carry on the values and traditions that guide our nation. The College community's escalating conflicts in virtually every area of human relationship are a screaming clarion for a sensible clear-minded solution. Whether it is between man and woman, black and white, this ethnicity and that, this religion and another, liberal and conservative, the community of Dartmouth -- like the rest of America -- is desperately in need of a common denominator that can restore a unifying power to our rapidly unraveling society.
When the most promising students in the land are resorting to suicide, murder, theft, defacing another's property, and defaming another's character you know there has been a monumental meltdown of the core values that had previously served to bind us together as a College community and nation. Never before in either Dartmouth's or the nation's histories has there ever been such a struggle over what we as a people hold to be true. Surely, what we see today in Hanover, Cambridge, New Haven, Ithaca, et.al., as well as in Gary, Indiana, South-Central L.A., and Main Street, U.S.A., would appall even the most hard-bitten of our forebears. Our nation is mortally sick and we need a prescription.
We can blame each other all we want. We can ascribe our failures to our genetic make-up, we can say that all is a huge failure, that life is bad joke in the larger scheme of eternal chaos.
The facts, however, indicate something else. We, men and women, infants and adolescents, of every race, religion and ethnic origin, were created by a creative and parental God for a divine purpose: we were created to build a greater human family of peace and eternal love based on a principle that is equal and fair to all. Judaism and Christianity clearly point to that, and that is what the Pilgrim and Puritan founders of this nation came here to fulfill. They knew what we seem to have forgotten: humankind was created good by good God, but we human beings became corrupted by sin. Even Milton's Paradise Lost, in paraphrasing the Bible, recognizes this truth. If we, as a College community or larger nation, continue to scoff at or ignore this, we will continue to decline until all is perished.
So before we totally destroy each other over political, racial, ethnic, or religious differences, we would do better to realize that every problem starts within each one of us. We all have a fallen sinful nature. We are all clouded in one way or another to the needs of those around us. We all lean more toward serving ourselves rather than our brother, our sister, our parents, our children, our neighbors. That is the problem: when the first human ancestors fell away from seeing and living from God's perspective, they settled on their own self-centered perspective. In turn, each one of us is the product of that fallen improper perspective because we are all part of the fallen human race lineage. That is the origin of the problems we see within ourselves or in others, at home or around the world. To deny or disparage this reality is foolhardy and ultimately self- destructive. Whoever said "ignorance is bliss" certainly did not know what they were talking about.
We see this most clearly in the misuse and abuse of love between two people. When men see women as only sex objects and women see men only as servants, there is no chance for true unity. And without unity, there is no chance for lasting peace. When men use women, and women use men, for their self-centered desires the one who is used is always demeaned. God never intended that. Sex is the most intensely pleasurable experience because God intended it to bind two people together in love forever, not merely for a moment of temporary ecstasy.
The result of that love naturally produces new life, a new child! How wondrous and beautiful an expression of God's encouragement of that love when a new-born infant is born! There is literally nothing else like this in the entire spectrum of life. This experience is what elevates humans to feel toward the child -- and, by extension, to others -- as God feels toward us. We become closer to God, almost as equals! Of course, God is still the original creator, but even God needs companionship. That is why, as the parental God, He created us. He created us so we, as His children, could relate with Him on every level.
When sexual love becomes a cheapened self-serving "blast", it is now the enemy of God and all of us. Self-centered love destroys the human relationship when it was supposed to strengthen it. What started out as the most powerful cement to bind two people together now becomes the most repellent divider. This is why lasting true love has endured as the most cherished of all things throughout history. We need to revive that value now.
Sincerely,
Reverend Gunnard Z. Johnston, Jr.
(Note: There is one more letter in this series to follow.)
(See below)
Reverend Gunnard Z. Johnston, Jr. `69
35 Andrew Street
Manchester, NH 03104-2417
(603) 624-9474
Mr. E. Davis Brewer `95
The Dartmouth Review
P.O. Box 343
Hanover, NH 03755-0343
January 20, 1996
Dear Mr. Brewer and Review Staff:
In response to your request for a contribution sent out late last year, please find enclosed my gift to the Review for this year.
I want to congratulate you once again for your courageous stand against the weak-minded and destructive trends that have engulfed one of the most beautiful colleges ever created by the tears, sweat, and blood of human endeavor, Dartmouth. In this day and age it is all too
easy to ignore the tremendous sacrifices that went into making America and Dartmouth. By your efforts and with your voice you give hope to not only the Dartmouth community, but to thousands -- if not millions -- of students around the world.
Therefore, I say to you: keep it up, keep fighting for what you believe. Never allow yourselves to be seduced by the false images and broken promises of those who would turn Dartmouth and America into a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. The free sex champions of the `60s and 70's are now sitting in far too many professorships and administrative positions. With steady and uncompromising determination, however, this can be changed.
What Dartmouth and all the leading institutions of America need today -- now more than ever -- is true decency. Without a sincere effort to find and follow true decency, real moral courage, and a way of life that God can accept, all will be lost. Do not doubt that. The warning signs have already been given: look at the breakdown of the family in America and ask yourself, "Are free sex and homosexuality helping or hurting the human family ?" Any objective study of not only biblical history but also the fall of the Roman Empire will unmistakenly answer this question.
I urge you, therefore, to continue your quest and never abandon your responsibility. With unwavering faith we will make Dartmouth a community of which God can be proud.
Sincerely,
Rev. Gunnard Z. Johnston