The Moral High Ground?
by Ryan McCann

Had the average God-fearing Hoosier (let’s call him Joe) sat in the House chamber on Monday, March 14th as SJR 7 (Indiana's Marriage Amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman) was being debated, it would have been clear to him that the supporters of SJR 7 clearly controlled the moral high ground.

The arguments of the proponents were well crafted, concise and respectful. They argued in favor of marriage as it has always been known in Indiana from legal, policy, moral, social, and medical perspectives, to name only a few. In addition, some proponents reached out to homosexuals with a message of love and concern.

However, this average Joe Hoosier could have missed the proponents' testimony entirely and still arrived at this conclusion. You see, although the media is incapable of calling a spade a spade when it comes to the radical hard-Left opponents of SJR 7, Joe is not.

Joe would have seen the opponents of SJR 7 compare supporters to Nazis, murderers and racists. Joe would have heard SJR 7 opponent, Pastor Jeff Minor of Jesus Metropolitan Christian Church rename a piece of legislation that would merely affirm marriage as "the Death Amendment." Joe may have heard that Indiana is a fairly conservative state shielded from the venom of Leftist radicals, but on Monday Joe would have gotten a wake-up call.

However, Joe was not in attendance on Monday. Instead, the House chamber, the distinguished epicenter of Indiana government, was filled with homosexual activists constantly interrupting the work of our state government with shouts of “shame, shame” as committee members voted in favor of marriage, the very core of Hoosier families and society.

In addition, the media embraces these activists. The front page of the "City & State" section (not the editorial page mind you) of the Indianapolis Star contained Ruth Holladay referring to the "rigid religious right" as "holier-than-thou Hoosiers hellbent on saving us from sin." But describing the aforementioned Jeff Miner's Jesus Metropolitan Community Church as a truly "faithful", "high-energy Christian congregation of mostly gay men and lesbians." Apparently faithful now means that you selectively delete the parts of the Bible with which you disagree. Through Holladay's logic the worst kind of evil comes from acting "holier-than-thou," but attempting to act holier-than-God is praiseworthy.

The most telling event of the day came as the committee chairman attempted to stop the crowd from halting the people's business. A gay activist yelled out, "This is our right!" He honestly believed that his group had a right to interrupt and ultimately halt the work of our elected officials. He acted as if his opinion alone should count more than the citizens of Indiana who elected the members of the committee. His actions revealed that he believes intimidation and coercion should trump civil discourse and representative democracy. Ultimately, he sent the message that HIS right to free speech trumps the rights of everyone else.

The enemies of SJR 7 are far more dangerous than the media and even most Christians realize. They not only want to destroy marriage and create a society free from any and all sexual boundaries, they will spare no effort to attain their ultimate goal of silencing all those who oppose them. You need only look at Canada and Sweden for the logical conclusion of their "this is our right" mentality. In those countries, citizens who speak out against the homosexual agenda are being charged with “hate speech” crimes and threatened with fines and jail time.

Homosexual activists here in Indiana are using the same game plan as was used in those countries. Promoting marriage as defined in scripture is at odds with the views of these radicals. Thus, they define such ideas as "hate speech" and attempt to punish those who oppose them through the law. The Left embraces these activists, but we must strongly oppose them; for we may lose even more than marriage if we fail.