In a way, Nathan Giede, you were right in your opinion piece of July 27.
Groups do have the right to limit membership to certain types of people - by political affiliation, race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or those who like model trains or airplanes. While I intensely dislike the position taken by the directors of Ness Lake Bible Camp, I have enough sense not to go near the place now that I know their policy. It is abhorrent.
The Ness Lake group should make it abundantly clear that LGBT people - or their supporters - are not welcome at the Ness Lake facility. I suppose that if a large group of children and parents were to rent some facilities at Ness Lake, the NLers would have security checks to verify that none of these attendees were LGBT. That would have to include church groups for those terrible rainbow types are known to hide, to be in heterosexual marriages, and even to join churches.
If a member of any group was LGBT their presence apparently would taint the ground itself. My goodness, what if B.C Hydro sent a gay serviceman to Ness Lake! NL may have its policy but it cowardly chose not to make it known to non-members; recent news makes it clear that such was not widely known.
And, of course, NL must develop a means to check on those who are coming - perhaps groups wishing to use NL facilities would have to submit a list of members to enable NL to verify that none are of the rainbow types by checking on Facebook and the like. One never really knows these days - such a shame, eh?
The thing is, Nathan, simply stating that a place is "bible believing" or has "Christian principles" is not enough.
The NL website avoids any mention of this policy. Many bible believing churches which have Christian values are welcoming to the rainbow community. Bigotry is not universal in Christianity. Ness Lakers were hiding their prejudice by not being up front - "LGBT NOT ALLOWED," big and bold. Their brochure is also silent on the matter.
If NL is going to use its right to discriminate, it really must warn people in advance of its prejudices, not sneak up on young volunteers. If groups elect not to use the facilities, that's fine by me.
Willow C. Arune
Prince George
