From Our Readers

Adventism and Homosexuals

In your article “Many Religions​—What Are Their Fruits?” (January 8, 1984), you quote from Newsweek that “over the last decade homosexual caucuses . . . have sprung up in mainline Protestant denominations and inspired similar organizations among . . . Seventh-day Adventists . . .” This implies that Adventists as a whole condone homosexuality. But active homosexuals cannot be baptized into the body. This sin is not tolerated.

R. & J. I., New York

The quotation we used did not say that the Seventh-day Adventists as an organized whole condone homosexuality, but only that some groups wanting recognition for such have made their appearance among Seventh-day Adventists. In a circular letter of April 23, 1981, from the Office of the President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, acknowledgment is made of the activity of homosexuals with Adventist connections. Ministers, teachers and other workers were advised not to meet with or work with such groups, though encouraged to extend a helping hand to individual homosexuals. Nothing is said about practicing homosexuals with Adventist connections being excommunicated for this practice.​—ED.

Saving Our Forests

Professional foresters largely deplore your article “Can Our Forests Be Saved?” (January 22, 1984) You allege “ . . . just one chain of fast-food restaurants . . . uses up the equivalent of 315 square miles of forest annually.” Instead, this should probably be interpreted that 315 square miles of forests would produce the required quantity each year on a sustained yield basis. Then you promote the popular misconception by saying that excessive destruction of the Amazon forest would “entail the irreversible destruction of an enormous source of oxygen . . .” Common sense tells us that in any mature forest (including the Amazon forest) decomposition consumes an amount of oxygen equal to that produced.

C. E. M., Oregon

The first statement, about the consumption of wood products by fast-food chains, is from the book “The Forest Killers” by Jack Shepherd, who is an environmentalist. However, a similar connection between fast-food stores and consumption of forests is made by Norman Myers for the Committee on Research Priorities in Tropical Biology of the National Research Council. As to the Amazon forest being a valuable oxygen source, this comment was made by Daniel Vidart, a Canadian university professor and UNESCO consultant. While this point might be debatable, and it may be that plant life in the sea plays the major role in supplying oxygen to the atmosphere, yet there seems to be very good reason to research this matter thoroughly before the world’s major forests are destroyed. Our article showed that some outstanding conservation measures are being taken to halt the destruction of the world’s forests, with many good examples from North America. But the main danger seems to be the devastation wreaked on tropical rain forests to supply the demands of developed lands.​—ED.