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Friday, January 9, 1998

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Heath knows how Jesus would vote

©Copyright 1998 Guy Gannett Communications
His Bible is twisted beyond all recognition, but Michael Heath's message, at long last, is crystal clear.

The executive director of the Maine Christian Civic League, hiding behind the shamefully misleading banner ''YES for EQUAL RIGHTS,'' wants Maine to do more than just repeal our new law granting just that to homosexuals.

He wants us to make their lives miserable.

The words, written by Heath in a fund-raising letter last November and released this week by Maine Won't Discriminate, offer the best reason yet to get out and vote ''No'' on Feb. 10:

''We believe that it IS appropriate to discriminate against people if they are wrong. We believe that this is especially true for the small businessman and landlord. They should be afforded the freedom to make decisions for themselves, unless the cumulative effect of their decisions causes widespread social problems for people. IF a Maine businessman or landlord wants to discriminate against a person because of their sexual orientation, they should be able to do so.''

In other words, it's no longer enough for Heath and his followers to label homosexuals as sinners. Now, in no uncertain terms, they consider it ''appropriate'' to evict gays and lesbians (real or suspected) from their apartments, fire them from their jobs, turn them away from hotels and restaurants, deny them loans . . .

Why, with his repeal referendum only a month away, would Heath say something so inflammatory, so polarizing, so extreme?

Two theories come to mind.

The first, by no means a revelation, is that Michael Heath is one part political strategist, 99 parts religious zealot.

At a time when he should be reaching out to the vast middle of Maine's moral spectrum - where this battle ultimately will be won or lost - the man who once promised a ''positive'' campaign appears hell-bent on dragging the debate deeper and deeper into his dark, ideological corner.

Last summer, he proclaimed Portland the ''moral gutter'' of Maine, forgetting that it also contains the state's largest concentration of registered voters. He likened our state legislators to ''Sodom and Gomorrah,'' oblivious to what that implies about those of us who sent them there.

And now, in a message that grows more bizarre with each turn of the page, Heath brazenly declares open season on homosexuals - assuring the timid that if Jesus himself were alive today, he'd be leading the charge:

''If Jesus were a landlord or employer, he would tell the truth. . . . Whether he hired, fired or rented to a person living the homosexual lifestyle in 1997 America, he would tell the truth. . . . And He would not contradict the Bible or His apostles. Paul called homosexuality a sin. . . . A modern, unrepentant American homosexual would not want to work for, or rent from, Jesus.''

Which leads us to our second theory for Heath's embrace of the extreme: He's from another world.

It's a world where Heath, Maine's self-appointed spiritual savior, tells us whom to judge, how to punish them and, in a startling display of ignorance and arrogance, what Jesus would do to all his wretched tenants sinners if it weren't forbidden by Maine law.

It's a world where the true message of the Bible - love and tolerance - is dissected verse-by-verse until all that's left is bitter condemnation and hatred.

It's a world where we need not go - provided that enough of us realize between now and Feb. 10 that Bibles, even in their original form, can no longer protect Maine's homosexuals from the likes of Michael Heath.

Only ballots can.

Bill Nemitz is a columnist for The Portland Newspapers.