LETTERS: SUPPORT FOR `ELLEN'

To the editor:

It seems that the tendency of a segment of the U.S. clergy to force their noses into things that aren't any of their business is matched only by the capacity of the U.S. people to put up with their brassy intrusions over and over again. The latest example of this in the April 24 Southeast Missourian is a faint cry of outrage and alarm on the part of a Cape Girardeau Baptist minister over the fact that a leading character in a network broadcast situation comedy is going to reveal, in the next episode, that her romantic interests are women, not men.

It seems to be of no comfort to the Rev. Mark Anderson that the one act that would leave no doubt of the character's sexual orientation -- that is, the actual physical act of sex -- will not be shown and that, therefore, the viewing public will simply have to take her word for it. For that matter, they also have to take the word of putative homosexuals that that is what they are, since their physical acts of sex are likewise not shown per FCC regs.

According to the article, Anderson "says homosexuality is a sin, and prime time television shouldn't promote it." Forget for the moment my point that actual homosexual practices will not be depicted. Still, using the same logic, the dozens of murders, maimings, robberies, assaults and other atrocities, which are indeed actually depicted in prim time, are also, by Anderson's lights and mine, sins. By my lights, because it is not logical to expect a person to refrain from harming me if I insist upon my right to harm him.

When I lived in New York, my upstairs neighbors were a homosexual couple. My stepsons were rock fans and regularly visited upstairs, because one of the pair was this era's version of a Renaissance man: a musician and an electronics expert. There was never the slightest question of my stepsons' having been corrupted by the pair. A perusal of headlines from time to time is enough to make me exclaim, Would that the typical minister could be trusted as much as my former upstairs neighbors.

To the extent that homosexuals exist and contribute to our society, it is only right that they be fairly depicted in our culture. I happen to subscribe to cable and resent very bitterly that the religious channel in Marion is allowed to take up one of my precious cable slots due to the must-carry provisions of federal telecommunications law. This channel might be Anderson's refuge while Miss DeGeneres is making her fateful revelation. This letter may be counted among the pro-Ellen ones.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.