Just Three Reasons Why

Two institutions and one movement experienced catastrophic moral failures over the past two decades.  This failure created Maine's current extremely toxic cultural climate on so-called "sexual orientation."  One institution is political.  The other two are religious.

Maine's Republican Party and Roman Catholic Church failed Maine people over the past two decades.  Maine's Evangelical Protestant movement held on until 2004, when they also capitulated.  Everything always rises or falls on leadership.  The leaders of these institutions, churches and movements are what failed the people of Maine.  There is no doubt in my mind that Maine would not have any "sexual orientation" laws today if it weren't for compromises at the leadership level.  I've been professionally active at that level since the late 1980s.

No reasonable person believes that the liberal leadership of the death culture is going to stop with their radical redefinition of marriage.  They will press that through later this year, or next year.  There exists no solid reasonable foundation to stop them.  Evangelical and Roman Catholic leadership granted the legitimacy of "gay rights" once again last year.  They did so in a crass political move designed to appeal to couch potatoes who might vote in the November election.  They ran a last minute television ad just before last year's vote on marriage allowing that Maine might need more legal rights for homosexuals and their friends.  Unbelievably, they offered the support of their institutions to these unnamed expansions in immoral rights.

I am left wondering if they meant they would allow the current effort to lock in government protections for cross dressing men to succeed.  Conspicuously absent in the debate over transgender bathrooms here in Maine are leaders from either the Evangelical or Roman Catholic tradition.  The only ones speaking out boldly are activists who tend to embarrass their leadership with passionate prayers in public, and bold public displays of the symbols of their faith, like rosary beads and big black bibles.

A few wonderful folks showed up to a work session in Augusta on the bathroom guidelines.  They contacted the press and made life generally miserable for the five members of the Maine Human Rights Commission, the governmental body that is creating the new bathroom guidelines.  Their efforts paid a rich dividend.  The Commission was forced to put the guidelines out to a public hearing.  That hearing will happen later this year.

Leaders will now have an opportunity to lead on this issue.  The Maine Human Rights Commission is arguing that they are merely doing the will of the people as enacted by law in 2004.  That is the year that homosexual rights finally passed.  Republicans and Roman Catholics sat on the sidelines while Christian (Catholic and Evangelical) activists and the Christian Civic League of Maine attempted another Peoples Veto.  The League nearly pulled it off at the polls a third time.  The relentless propagandizing of liberals finally pushed this evil idea over the top, and homosexual rights became the law of the land.

One Evangelical leader who spoke out in a blog post just before the bathroom guidelines work session suggested that guidelines like these shouldn't concern citizens as much as laws.  Perhaps leaders like this will now step up and work to strip the phrase "sexual orientation" from all Maine's laws?  This is an effort I am eager to support, but only if Christians will unite to make it happen.

It is never too late to do the right thing.  All Maine people must pray (or hope, if you don't have the spiritual muscle to pray) that these institutions will stop pretending that they are bold defenders of the family and marriage.  The upcoming Maine Human Rights Commission PUBLIC hearing on bathroom rules for cross dressers will reveal a lot.