This from Maine, where the debate over civil rights is getting heated. When you read this you should be able to easily see the relation to these other so called "Chirstian" groups, like that of the ones involved in passing measure 36 last year. Ech hem. Tim Nashif. Kelly Clark etc.

It is time that Michael Heath and the Christian Civic League of Maine live up to their organization's name and stop using their professed Christianity as a weapon of hate.=

The opinions I write here are informed by my lifetime of study and experience in the evangelical Christian church. The son of a minister, I graduated from both a private Baptist high school and a major evangelical Bible university in preparation for seminary and full-time ministry.

My formal education (in addition to over 20 years of Sunday School and Bible Study) includes extensive training in church history and theology.

There is no contradiction between Christian beliefs and supporting basic civil rights for all Mainers. Since the early 1990s, however, Heath has positioned himself and the Christian Civic League as the primary opponents to civil rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens in our state.

He has also threatened certain local companies with retaliation for supporting a recent awards banquet for Equality Maine, a gay and lesbian advocacy organization.

Continuing to oppose the expansion of civil rights for all Mainers is, at best, hypocritical for Heath and his organization. At worst, it is contradictory to the scripture by which he claims to live, the best traditions of charity that live through the history of the Christian church and even perhaps the very tenets of Christian orthodoxy itself.

I applaud Gov. Baldacci for signing "An Act to Extend Civil Rights to All People Regardless of Sexual Orientation." Now that it has passed, this bill will protect the civil rights of all Maine citizens by adding "sexual orientation" to the other classes currently protected by the Maine Human Rights Act.

It will make it illegal for anyone to be denied a job, housing or credit because they are gay or lesbian. The law already protects against discrimination for issues of race, age, sex, marital status, physical and mental disability, skin color, religion, ancestry or national origin.

Michael Heath and the Christian Civic League are already on record in opposition to this bill. But, as the question of civil rights for gays and lesbians in the state of Maine once again becomes a prominent public issue, he and the Christian Civic League have an opportunity to re-evaluate their current position on civil rights for all Maine citizens.

Doing so would place them on the right side of history and in the righteous tradition of people of faith who have fought to expand, rather than to restrict, the rights that each person deserves to have.

This tradition includes Mother Theresa, who spent a lifetime caring for the poor and the dying on the streets of Calcutta, India. And it includes the Rev. Martin Luther King, who led the early struggle for black civil rights in this country, resulting in the federal Voting Rights Act guaranteeing all Americans the right to vote.

The dreams that these two professing, practicing Christians had of justice and equality for all still inspire the continuing struggle for universal social justice in our world today. Both of these Christians saw the world as it was but gave their lives to change it for the benefit of all humanity.

Unfortunately, we are all aware of so-called "Christians" throughout time who have worked to restrict and prohibit the progress of human rights in the world, also in the name of their God and their church. Recent historical examples of this include opponents to the black civil rights movement in our country.

Christians today have many examples like these in the recent past to help them decide on which side of history they ultimately wish to be remembered.

True Christians are commanded to ". . . love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind . . . (and) love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39)."

It is the civic responsibility of all Mainers to look out for one another regardless of lifestyle or orientation. Without public repentance by Heath and his organization for their intolerance and hypocrisy, the rest of us will have good reason to doubt that the name "Christian Civic League of Maine" means anything at all.