Comfort, Not Prayer

To the editors:

Benjamin D. Grizzle ’03, who several weeks ago was quoted as saying that “we think what [gays] are doing is wrong” (Magazine, “Can This Man Make You Straight?”, Sept. 27), wrote in this week’s edition of Fifteen Minutes (“There Are No Atheists in Foxholes”, Oct. 11) that “the real loss we feel at senseless death and suffering cannot be explained or understood without a God.” He also states that thousands of people showed up at the Sept. 11 vigil on the steps of Memorial Church to pray.

I was at the vigil on Sept. 11. I was not there to beg God for protection or spiritual sustenance, nor to ask Jesus Christ to save my soul. I was there looking for the support of my fellow man. I was there to see the indomitability of the human spirit. Grizzle’s assertion that thousands of people showed up to pray is a misrepresentation of the facts. Does he also assert that the hundreds of people congregated around television sets around campus were also praying? No, we were looking for human companionship, seeking to reassure ourselves that not all humanity is as cold-blooded and chaotic as Grizzle’s view of the world implies.

At this time of “emotional vulnerability,” I find it disturbing that Grizzle should so blatantly and ruthlessly continue to proselytize. I have not insulted him in these trying times by trying to force-feed him my worldview. I hope that I could expect the same respect and courtesy from him, but apparently I cannot. Shame on Grizzle for using this tragedy to further his own ends and shame on Fifteen Minutes for giving him the forum to do so.

Jason L. Lurie ’05

Oct. 13, 2001