The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

My good friend Fritz Spencer penned his personal remembrance of the battle for Marriage in Maine. He witnessed it first hand as an employee of mine at the Christian Civic League of Maine.

Dear reader, if I were to draw for you a map of all the battles which occurred to save the institution of marriage in Maine, I could not show you the spot where every good deed was done, or the place where every hero fell.

I can only give you the briefest of personal reminiscences, drawing a bright and colorful map such as a good and loving father might leave for his children, painting in the most memorable sights and filling up the pages with the most remarkable scenes, then taking you by the hand, and leading you through the landscape towards a higher spiritual reality.

The dome of our State House in Augusta is topped with a golden statue of the feminine personification of Wisdom; and Wisdom is spoken of in the Bible in the most sublime terms.

"I, wisdom, was with the Lord when he began his work, long before he made anything else. I was created in the very beginning, even before the world began. I was born before there were oceans, or springs overflowing with water, before the hills were there, before the mountains were put in place. God had not made the earth or fields, not even the first dust of the earth.” (Proverbs 8:22-26; see also Ecclesiasticus 24; and The Wisdom of Solomon 6-8.)

That such a beautiful angelic power stands watch over a legislative body beset by such extreme folly is a deep and painful irony. I for one would be delighted if Wisdom would glide down from the dome of the State House with the light and sure step of an angel, and then reprove each and every legislator, one-by-one.

If one excludes the confounding of light with darkness, the confusion of day with night, and the mistaking of good for evil, there can be no worse error than to unite the same sex in marriage. Sanctifying the union of man with woman is therefore the simplest of all laws to write, and the one which requires the least deliberation. Only the most perverted souls and the most deluded minds can arrive at the opposite conclusion.

As Philo of Alexandria wrote, homosexuality sterilizes a land and blights its people; requiring God in His mercy to send down merciful punishment to protect mankind. In his “Treatise on Abraham,” Philo gives an exposition on the subject which has never been excelled. I quote part of it here.

"...but also those who were men lusted after one another, doing unseemly things, and not regarding or respecting their common nature...and became like women in their persons, corrupting in this way the whole race of man, as far as depended on them.

If the Greeks and barbarians were to have agreed together, and to have adopted the customs of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, their cities one after another would have become desolate, as if they had been emptied by a pestilence.

But God, having taken pity on mankind, increased, as far as possible, the natural desire of men and women, for the sake of producing children, and detesting the unnatural and unlawful custom of the people of Sodom, he extinguished it...not by any ordinary chastisement, but he inflicted on them an astonishing novelty. For on a sudden, he commanded the sky to become overclouded and to pour forth a mighty shower, not of rain but of fire; and the flame poured down, with a resistless and unceasing violence."

Should anyone doubt the words of Philo, the greatest of sages, let him hear instead the recent statistics from the town of Ogunquit, Maine, where the Sodomites have settled and gained political power. The most recent vital statistics show 173 Marriage Certificates, many of them for “marriages” between male homosexuals. The number of Certificates of Live Births is zero. Under the influence of Sodomite “marriage” the town of Ogunquit is dying out, as Philo correctly predicted.

Therefore, let no one object to my use of the battle metaphor. Though no blow was struck, no shot fired, and no blood drawn –- and this was as it should be -- the outcome of this struggle will prove more consequential to Maine than all the wars and all the armed conflicts ever fought in this state, as one side fights to protect civil society, and the other side seeks to overturn the laws of nature.

- end of Part One -

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Two]

The dirty wind which carried the plague of perversion to America blew first across the Atlantic, from the East. The wind arose out of a revolutionary tempest called the “Freudian Left.” The most influential thinker in this group was Wilhelm Reich, a clinical assistant to Sigmund Freud, and a member of the Communist Party. Reich viewed the destruction of sexual morality as the fastest way to bring about Marxist revolution; and he set forth this strange doctrine in a book called “The Sexual Revolution”, written in 1927.

I have written elsewhere how Reich migrated to Rangeley, Maine, and unleashed havoc with his odd blend of Marxism and Freudianism. And I have discussed his connections, twice or three-times removed, to the most prominent liberal Republicans in our state. A fuller account of Reich’s ideology and methods is given in Paul Robinson’s book “The Freudian Left”, albeit from a liberal perspective.

Also included in the Freudian Left, is Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, sometimes called “The Einstein of Sex.” Hirschfeld advocated for the first same sex marriage law in Europe; and he was the first doctor to perform a sex change operation. Hirschfeld, like Reich, was a member of the Communist Party.

But it is Harry Hay, “The Father of the Gay Rights Movement” who most requires our notice and attention. According to a history of the movement written by homosexual rights activists, Hay hit upon the idea of applying Stalin’s definition of a persecuted minority group to homosexuals. Hay was at the time a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA.)

We should carefully avoid the notion that the homosexual rights movement is in any sense “a Communist conspiracy.” The movement merely makes use of Marxist revolutionary principles and tactics. Homosexuality was never sanctioned by Marxist ideology, nor was the practice ever legal in any Communist state. Hay merely gave the movement an ideological foundation, along with the standard Marxist tactics of banners, slogans, parades, marches, and riots.

Gay Pride Parades and rainbow-painted crosswalks are now an established part of our civic life. I myself stood a few feet away from Ethan Strimling as he led a Gay Pride march, and heard him call out in a loud and laughter-filled voice, “Welcome to the People’s Republic of Portland!”

The League found evidence which strongly suggested far left involvement in the homosexual rights movement in Maine. We learned that one of the homosexual rights organizations in the state occupied the same floor of a building where two other organizations, identified by the government as Communist front groups, were located.

The Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in June 1969 were the start of the homosexual rights movement. The steady, relentless infiltration of the movement into Maine was thus of long standing. The movement had a very powerful and persuasive message, one which changed our civic and moral landscape with the speed of a raging wildfire. But Mike Heath at the Christian Civic League was digging a firebreak; and it was at the edge of that firebreak that the movement first encountered resistance.

Ben Bubar, Jr. testified against the first legislative efforts for homosexual rights as early as the late 1970s; and the League's battle against the movement began in earnest in the late 1980s when Mike Heath, then an administrative assistant, encouraged the Board of the League to take up the fight.

The first battle came in the early 1990s in the form of a lawsuit the League filed against Maine's Secretary of State at the time, the current Senator Bill Diamond. The League won the lawsuit.

Larry Lockman and Carolyn Cosby, working with a group called Concerned Maine Families, gathered signatures for a referendum while the League pursued the lawsuit. Lockman is currently a member of the Maine House of Representatives. In the mid-90s, Concerned Maine Families forced the first referendum on the issue in Maine. The pro-family side lost, due in part, to unnecessary infighting.

Mike Heath was encouraged to participate in a "No Room for Hate" campaign waged by the ministers; but he wisely declined, reasoning that Christians do not hate sinners.

The Maine Legislature outlawed same sex marriage in 1997, but established civil unions for homosexuals in April of 2004.

- end of Part Two –

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Three]

My leap into the firebreak dug by Mike Heath at the Christian Civic League was sudden and unexpected. In the late summer of 2001, I was among the great grey masses of lawyers, accountants, and clerical workers in Manhattan who have a cup of coffee each morning and then march off to work with robotic precision. I trudged along in a somewhat sorrowful spirit, having lost my young wife to illness one year before.

In that first beautiful week of September, no one guessed that the sky would soon fall in.

On Tuesday, September 11^th, I looked out my door at the Twin Towers for the last time. Returning home two days later, I saw that all that remained of the buildings was a column of white smoke ascending into the sky.

My recollection of all the buildings shredded like long strips of green metallic paper; of piles of ashes and billowing clouds of whitish-grey dust; of a friend barely escaping the collapsing North Tower; and of an acquaintance burned alive by cascading jet fuel, will add little to the accounts which can be found elsewhere. Out of all the terror, I remember most the rows upon rows of photos – thousands of them – of missing victims being sought by their families.

Savages intent on murder had passed through Maine in the black of night to attack New York City. And like all demons, they bore the marks of night and fire. Alarmed by the attack, I was soon to make the journey in the opposite direction, back home to Maine.

Returning home, I encountered a gaudy and raucous Gay Pride parade in Portland. The size of the parade astounded me; and it was the memory of the attack on St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York by radical homosexual activists, and the sudden fear that I had not yet escaped the evils of the big city that made me cry out - quite without thinking - “Sodomites! You will bring down the wrath of God on Maine!” That is an opinion shared by many, but few are willing to say it.

There would be no outrunning the evil which is the homosexual rights movement; and there could be no compromise, no capitulation, and no surrender. To fight back I contacted the Christian Civic League of Maine and offered my services.

I was surprised and gratified to receive an invitation from Mike Heath to become the editor of the League’s online newspaper, The RECORD. Throughout all of the political campaigns, I remained an observer rather than a participant; and my reminiscences will necessarily omit the details pertaining to that aspect of the League’s effort.

If one is to battle a dragon, one must find the proper armor; and once the armor is obtained, one must fight with single-minded determination. The armor I needed was the shield of faith and the sword of truth; and these I purchased at the cost of all my worldly goods. I watched my possessions pass out of my hands without any regret. All I owned was given to friends or donated; and at the very moment I watched my last possessions pass through the door of kindly neighbors, I saw for the first time -- displayed on the wall of their living room -- a life-size painting of Francis of Assisi. That sight has consoled me and confirmed me in my decision down to this very day.

I made the journey to Augusta like a vagabond, with my clothes and a few good books packed loosely in a duffle bag, with no place to stay, and shoes that pinched and blistered my feet. Through the kindness of friends, I stayed for a while at the home of pro-life activists. I am especially indebted to one Catholic family for putting me up in their home for several days; and I am a bit embarrassed that I never found the occasion to thank or repay them properly.

When money ran low during my stay in Augusta, I ate at a soup kitchen, learning to be grateful for a small portion of mashed potatoes, a hot dog, and whatever dessert was at hand. Toiletries I obtained from a homeless shelter and food bank; and I recall that on one occasion I was much pleased to receive a bag filled with small bars of soap. For a while I rented living quarters at the League headquarters, which gave me a phone, a desk, and best of all, a large and amply-filled bookshelf.

At the end of my stay at the League, I stayed for two weeks at what is best called a rather dilapidated flophouse. My conversations with the broken, the homeless, the castaways, the mentally ill, and the convicts who were for a short time my neighbors proved to be far more rewarding than my contacts with the new leadership of the League. These men I quickly came to dislike as proud, presumptuous, and Pharisaical. Their manner of speech was at all times guided by the two worst aspects of the American character, a glib superficiality of thought, combined with a constant need for social approval.

My plummeting fall in status proved to be my salvation. The dross of pride was purged from my heart; and I was learning to love my neighbor as myself. Shortly thereafter, I received a call to return home to care for my disabled son.

Being by nature introverted, I misjudged Mike Heath on our first meeting. I did not warm to his open and candid “Hail fellow, well met!” persona. But that which I uncharitably judged to be a character flaw was merely a requirement for his political work – a need for affability - and was not in keeping with his true personality. Over the years, I gained an appreciation of his character, and found him to possess an unsurpassed practical wisdom and nearly infallible political prudence. Of all persons I have ever met, Mike Heath is the easiest to misjudge. I must defer his due praise until the end of my story.

We always underestimate the strengths of those who oppose us; and in underestimating Mike Heath, the homosexual rights movement made a crucial mistake, as did those on our side who preferred to go on to different leadership.

Mike Hein, who managed the daily operation of the League, was a by-the-book administrator who possessed great strength of character, and an indefatigable fighting spirit. He was also a man of profound good will; and he treated all visitors who came to the League with great charity and true sincerity. Mike always found the right tactic to hit the homosexual rights movement hard, and he hit them again and again.

- end of Part Three -

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Four]

In writing my brief narrative of the Christian Civic League’s battle to save marriage in Maine, I must rely on an incomplete and fallible memory. My story is therefore fragmentary, with many gaps. The documents needed for a complete history of those years are still suppressed by the League. But I will press forward, not without faith in the power of brief chronicles. I offer sketches and impressions; and I will let my friends and my detractors supply the missing information as they will.

As of 2004, when I first saw Augusta and the dome of the State House, I still believed in the good will and the sound judgment of those who make our laws. I did not see that I was crossing the threshold of a political snake pit located at the edge of a moral cesspool.

Behind all the shining buildings lurked the dark forces which connive at our destruction. Those dark forces were well-concealed, and for that reason, all the more lethal. I quickly learned that in Augusta, the leaders of the homosexual rights movement smiled for the press; and when the cameras stop flashing, they whispered obscenities in Mike Heath’s ear.

After the legalization of civil unions in April 2004, there followed, in the month of May, the rainiest and gloomiest spring on record. Water poured into public buildings damaging public records; and even the beautiful Lithgow Library was flooded. Storms raged up and down the coast, bringing weather more like winter than spring. If the weather mirrored the mind and soul of our people, it too was clouded over, troubled, and turbulent.

Augusta was at this time, in the words of the League’s new office manager, “home to Maine’s most active abortion mill; home to the state’s most notorious gay bar; and home to Maine’s most notorious lingerie shop.” The Boston Globe and the New York Times reported how women dressed in lingerie stood in the window of a shop in the state capital and touted their wares. Mike Hein organized a demonstration which led to the closing of the lingerie shop.

We continued the League’s message of Temperance. Soon after The RECORD published a story about the danger of extending operating hours at a local bar, a man in his twenties wandered off from that same bar, fell from a bridge that crosses over the Kennebec River, and drowned.

In November of 2005, Mike Heath traveled to Bowdoin College to give “The Vision Place of Souls” speech. Expecting angry opposition, he found instead that many in the audience were strangely moved by a message they had never heard, a message which offered hopeful spiritual realities instead of the materialistic doctrines taught in our schools -- doctrines which amount, in essence, to practical atheism.

I must include in my recollections the account of a surprise visit by a rather heavy-set and angry transvestite. Standing six feet in height or more, and dressed in a white outfit, he harangued me about the League’s “antigay” activities; and becoming steadily more agitated, he asked to see Mike Heath. At one point in our conversation he reached for a small white matching handbag, which I thought at the time might contain a handgun. I continued our conversation in a calm manner, and our troubled visitor eventually regained control of his emotions, and the visit passed without further incident.

On one occasion I took a call from someone in California who threatened Mike Heath with death. We reported the incident to the police.

I will omit a detailed discussion of the hacking of the League’s computers by a homosexual rights activist, and his posting of obscenities on our website. I will also omit a discussion of how the sign at the League was vandalized with anti-Christian graffiti, and smeared with blood-red paint. All these incidents were reported in the Christian Civic League RECORD, but are no longer available to the public because our written materials from those years are still impounded by the current leadership.

In the week before Christmas in 2005, the League began its quest for the elusive photographs from Governor John Baldacci’s meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Governor, as had five governors before him, traveled to Cuba ostensibly for trade, but the Baldacci administration was the first to call for an end to the trade embargo with Cuba. Baldacci also met secretly with Venezuelan officials at the Portland International Jetport to arrange a discounted fuel oil deal with that Marxist-led nation.

After filing a Freedom of Information Act request, the League obtained 500 pages of documents related to the Governor’s trip to Cuba, including many photos of his in-person meetings with Fidel Castro. From the many favorable references by state officials about Fidel Castro - among which are many deferential references to “President Castro” - and from the nature of the planning and organization of the trip, I formed the opinion that there existed within the highest levels of government in Augusta what is rightly called a “red cell,” that is, a cabal of dedicated Marxists. To what extent liberal Republicans in Augusta are also “fellow travelers” with the Marxists is a topic for later discussion.

The RECORD was the only media outlet in Maine to publish any of the photos from Havana, with the exception of one column by the late M.D. Harmon, a stalwart friend of the pro-life movement. Harmon went on to die in a gun accident at his home three days after Christmas in 2016; and I cannot believe otherwise than that he fell as a martyr, a victim of the powers of darkness which work steadily and secretly in opposition to our cause.

I must include an account of Jake, the burly German shepherd who always stayed at the side of the office manager who preceded Mike Hein. Jake would bark loudly as I entered the office each morning; and it was not until I had surreptitiously given him half of a chocolate donut that we became good friends. Jake would follow me up the stairs to the room across from the empty Executive Director’s office, where I would sit in an arm chair, and Jake would patiently plead for more, with one long furry leg wrapped over my knee.

Mike Hein, a former 2nd Lieutenant in the National Guard, and a graduate of Marquette University, was interviewed to take the place of the departing office manager. I made a strong recommendation in his favor, based on the three criteria for any new hire: education in his field of work, actual experience doing the work desired, and aptitude for the job. Mike had strong qualifications in each of these areas, and hiring him was a wise decision.

Many years later, it dawned on me that we, the last of Mike Heath’s administration, were the watchdogs who remained to guard the flock. And the worst of the wolves appeared from within the church, disguised as kind and friendly sheep.

If my memory serves me correctly, Governor John Baldacci spoke at a gay pride rally in Deering Oaks Park in Portland in the summer of 2004. The Governor appeared shortly after a musical introduction by a troupe of belly dancers, all in somewhat poor physical condition, gyrating lasciviously in skimpy Middle Eastern garb. The office manager and the present writer stood in the front row of the audience holding aloft the ecumenical Christian flag, with its red cross emblazoned on a field of white and blue. And as the Governor took the stage, we began to heckle. Upon reflection, I am convinced we did not heckle him loudly enough.

- end of Part Four –

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Five]

During the years 2004-2009, the League published many editorials, opinion pieces, and speeches in defense of marriage. In our writings, we sought to expose the basic principles on which the homosexual rights movement operated, and to state in the plainest possible terms the goals of the movement. The truth was unpalatable to many, even to those who claimed to be on our own side; but the plain truth resonated with the public.

In 2007, we opposed the introduction of contraceptives at King Middle School in Portland, and the proposed revision of the sex education curriculum at that school. In the course of doing so, we discovered that the revisions were based on recommendations by the organization SECUS, headquartered in New York City.

But I must jump forward to 2009, when the wall around marriage, long-rotted by a deceptive appeal to tolerance and false compassion began to soften and crumble. Despite our successful repeal of the same sex marriage law passed in May of 2009, the wall around marriage collapsed.

In each of our battles, we were guided by the principle “Do what your opponent fears most.” And what the homosexual rights movement feared most was that the public would learn the truth.

In the spring of 2009, at the height of the campaign for same sex marriage, we were unexpectedly handed a shocking illustration of this truth; and the story traveled from Maine around the world.

During a hearing on the proposed same-sex “marriage” law held at the Civic Center in Augusta, a homosexual named Bruce LaVallee­-Davidson appeared with his partner “Buck” and made the outrageous claim -- while shedding crocodile tears -- that he and Buck were “already married in the eyes of God.” What was unknown to the public was that four days earlier, on April 17th, LaVallee­-Davidson had shot and killed an IT technician named Fred Wilson at his home in South Portland. The killing followed a night of drug and alcohol-­fueled debauchery. Bruce­ LaVallee-Davidson’s “spouse,” Buck, was not present, but a third man was.

The killing took place in a room in Fred Wilson’s basement the press later nicknamed “The Dungeon.” I will omit the unimaginably sordid details, which can be gained from other sources, though perhaps those details are best kept in the files of those who treat the criminally insane.

Homosexual rights activists used a videotape of LaVallee­-Davidson’s tearful testimony at the Civic Center to promote same-sex marriage in Maine until it was realized that LaVallee­-Davidson was responsible for the killing, at which point, the tape of Bruce and Buck was hurriedly removed from the Internet.

The night before the killing, Davidson brought a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber pistol and a .44 caliber handgun to Wilson’s home on Henry Street in South Portland. The three men present consumed alcohol, marijuana, and at least two other drugs during a six­-hour long night of debauchery. Towards morning, LaVallee­-Davidson placed the .44 caliber handgun to Wilson’s head and pulled the trigger twice. The gun fired on the second attempt, killing Wilson instantly. LaVallee­-Davidson covered Wilson’s body with a blanket, disposed of the evidence, and then fled with Wilson’s laptop and cell phone. LaVallee­-Davidson’s motive for removing the laptop and cell phone is still not known.

Mike Heath began an inquiry which led to the disclosure of previously unrevealed facts about the killing. Trips to the South Portland Police Department and the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland led the League to discover further facts not known to the press.

The League learned that Wilson was an IT specialist for the Harbor Masters Club in Portland, a group dedicated to sadomasochistic practices, and that “The Dungeon” was in fact an audio-visual studio. The League also learned that Wilson was a contributor to a museum in Chicago devoted to sadomasochism known as “The Leather Archives and Museum.” These revelations and other investigations by the League staff led us to conclude, and to state publicly - well in advance of the mainstream press - that the killing was related to sadomasochistic practices which are an endemic part of the homosexual subculture.

The horror of this story contributed to the repeal of the same sex marriage law in November of 2009. But it was too much even for our backers at the League. They reacted with disgust and revulsion, and misdirecting their anger at us, speeded up our departure from the League.

- end of Part Five –

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Six]

Despite our victory in the referendum repealing same sex marriage in 2009, that year marked the complete collapse of all resistance to the homosexual rights movement in Maine.

The last of Mike Heath’s administration was removed from the League in the wake of a hearing by The Maine Human Rights Commission which sought to add transgendered rights to the Maine Human Rights Act of 2005. Under the proposed guidelines, schools would be required to allow a boy to use the girls' bathrooms and locker rooms.

One day in the winter of 2009, shortly after the repeal of the same sex marriage law, Mike Hein burst into my office holding a copy of the Kennebec Journal. In great excitement, he pointed to an article about the Maine Human Rights Commission's proposed educational guidelines.

After strategizing, we filed a Maine Freedom of Access Act request on the MHRC, a tactic which had proven successful in obtaining the suppressed photos of Governor Baldacci’s visit to Cuba. What we obtained from the MHRC was beyond shocking. The documents clearly and explicitly stated the Commission’s intent to enact the proposed guidelines by guile and deception. The Commission would first market the guidelines as “recommendations” to gain the favor of the public; and then, no matter what the outcome, the MHRC would promulgate the recommendations as law.

The documents also showed that the most prominent homosexual rights activists in the state were given a line-by-line review of the proposed guidelines, and that the guidelines were opposed by the professional and educational associations of Maine.

Hein posted these revelations on the website of the Christian Civic League, and then issued a press release calling on the public to attend the Commission's hearing on the guidelines. Realizing there would be strenuous opposition from the public, the League arranged for a press conference to be held on the same floor and at the same time as the hearing, in order to outflank the Commission.

It was a masterpiece of strategy in which a small force surrounds and defeats a large army. The room next to the MHRC hearing in the Senator Inn was already booked, so we rented a smaller room on a lower floor.

Steve Martin and Jack McCarthy, who at the time hosted the Aroostook Watchmen show on WBCQ, made the six-hour trek from Aroostook County. Paul Madore came in from Lewiston, and stalwart Pat Truman – always ready and ever faithful -- came from nearby Hallowell. Madore, Martin, Pat Truman, Reverend Bob Celeste, and independent Congressional candidate Alan Lowberg all made statements to the press during the press conference.

Lowberg warned that the proposed guidelines were unconstitutional and would never be tolerated by the public. Lowberg's observations on the legality of the proposed guidelines were later confirmed by a member of the Commission during the hearing.

Shortly after the hearing got underway, the fireworks erupted. At the back of the room stood gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage. Behind LePage was a row of men dressed in women's clothing, looking much more prim, better coiffed, and more well-accoutered than the women in the audience. The line of overly-tall transvestites stretched across the back of the room and poured out into the hall, where the cross-dressing men giggled as they entered the ladies room, one after the other.

As the committee members started to discuss how to proceed with the guidelines, the anger of the crowd boiled over. Reverend Bob Celeste stood up and complained that the hearing was run by bureaucrats, and was closed to public comment. Jack McCarthy spoke from the floor, commenting on the complete nonsensicality of the guidelines. Police moved through the crowd, instructing the angry citizens to be quiet; and the hearing quickly threatened to degenerate into a fiasco.

The blame for the whole affair in no sense rested with the public. The disturbance at the hearing was a natural and appropriate reaction to the absurdity of the proposed guidelines -- written as they were by homosexual activists – and presented by state officials with shameless impudence.

One committee member, Ken Fredette, stated that the Commission did not have the authority to issue the guidelines, and said that only the Legislature had the authority to do so.

After the angry comments from the floor, committee members hurriedly agreed that a decision on the guidelines would be deferred until after a public hearing. Several weeks later, the MHRC shelved the guidelines indefinitely.

Our victory over the transgendered agenda proved fatal to us at the League. We were not done in by the press, by the homosexual rights movement, or by the liberal establishment. We were done in by our own supporters. Our most ardent opponent was Rev. Bob Emrich, who was at the time, the leader of the Maine Jeremiah Project.

Emrich publicly opposed Hein's tactics at the hearing, and his comments sparked a heated exchange of emails. The League saw Emrich as the rising star of the pro-family movement, and Hein was called onto the carpet.

Hein was told he could keep his job if he apologized to Emrich, which caused Hein more than a bit of anguish. Hein resolutely refused to do so, and was given a final deadline for the apology. The deadline arrived, and the opportunity to make the apology was withdrawn, with no further discussion by the Executive Director, Carroll Conley.

Shortly thereafter Emrich was made a member of the Board of the League, eventually becoming its Chairman. Hein continued to refuse Emrich the demanded respect and deference; and one afternoon in August, he was called into the office of Carroll Conley, the Executive Director, and fired.

Thereupon I was also immediately summoned into the office of the Executive Director and advised that I would be fired if I continued to stand with Hein.

All this was the barest window-dressing, of course. The politically-connected Board had deeper motives for dismissing the holdovers from Heath’s days at the League. Emrich had been the director of the Republican Senate Office at the State House; and prominent board members were high-up functionaries in the Maine Republican Party.

In the end, my severe criticisms of Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe over their support of partial birth abortion, and my many revelations about prominent liberal Republicans in the state -- Margaret Chase Smith included – antagonized the new leadership, whose heart was more with the Republican Party than with Christ.

I was exposing the rot at the core of the Republican Party, at the core of the Democratic Party, and at the core of our entire political system, for that matter; and that was my downfall. Others, including the new leadership of the League, traded in and made a pleasant living from that same ideological rot, and I was in the way.

I also knew Conley to be antagonized by my criticisms of Rock & Roll and the urban subculture. He had been the music director at a church which resembled a Broadway sound stage more than a house of worship, and he no doubt took my remarks as a deep personal insult, which I never intended.

I later learned Conley had been lobbying for my removal for months, if not years, in advance of the controversy over the MHRC hearing. The controversy merely provided him a pretext for my long-desired removal. At all times, and especially when he was lobbying for the position of Executive Director, he was careful to present himself before the Board as my good friend and ally.

A few short days before Conley was made the new Executive Director, a bizarre incident occurred which I have not disclosed until now. Conley and I spoke in my office about my future plans; and I was sure that common decency, and our family ties, would preserve the confidentiality of the conversation. Minutes after concluding our conversation, we appeared before the Board, and Conley, to my great surprise, proceeded to repeat the details of our conversation at great length.

A few days later Conley made another visit to the League; and when I suggested I would tell the Board about his betraying my confidence, he erupted into a sudden, white hot rage, and chased me up the two flights of stairs at the back of the building. Conley was livid with anger; and he refused, for what seemed to be an hour or two, to leave the League headquarters. All the while, he continued to pour out a steady stream of arguments, now hectoring and haranguing me, now pleading that I act in the interest of honor and Christian principles.

I demanded that he leave, but yet he refused. I also said it would be necessary for me to call the police. Conley insisted he would leave only on the condition that I swore never to tell anyone how he betrayed my confidence to the Board. His persistence achieved his desired goal, and I swore never to tell. I merely wanted Conley to leave the premises without any further trouble. I have remained silent on this matter until now, despite knowing that an oath made under duress and coercion can never be binding; and that an oath is never less binding than when it is made to suppress the truth.

And so it was that the Emrich and Conley came to refer to us as "the problems at the League." The remarks they made in the aftermath of the fiasco were not always charitable, and were often meant to wound. I continued to rent a room at the League, and there followed many an angry row with Conley. We were cousins, and we had been squabbling and scrapping since boyhood. Our clash of personalities and the entire sequence of events were carefully arranged and ordained by fate from the very beginning.

After the departure of the last of Heath’s administration, the trajectory of the League spiraled ever downwards towards the liberal doctrine of respect, compassion, and tolerance -- a most useful and remunerative doctrine if one seeks to gain the favor of the world.

Had the approach recommended by Emrich and Conley been used in the 2009 fight over transgendered rights, it is very likely that the transgendered guidelines proposed by the MHRC would now be law in Maine. The same approach of tolerance and mutual respect was used in the 2012 campaign, against our strenuous objections, and this led to the loss of the institution of marriage in Maine. That loss was a major factor in the legalization of homosexual marriages nationwide, a fact proudly admitted by the homosexual rights activists themselves.

- end of Part Six –

The Battle to Save Marriage in Maine

[Part Seven]

When writing an opinion piece, speech, or a column in defense of marriage, I never doubted we would outmatch the other side. The homosexual rights movement took their arguments from poorly-understood and poorly-stated notions of law and sociology, and resorted again and again to that most effective, yet most deceptive of appeals -- an appeal to pity. Curiously enough, it was the same method adopted by the new leadership of the League.

Our resources were far better. In all my commentary, I relied on a compendium of ethics written by Father Ignatius W. Cox, a Jesuit father and professor of ethics at Fordham University. The name of his most useful book, which I have read and re-read until the spine is broken and the cover is battered, is “Liberty Its Use and Abuse.” Father Cox wrote on the topic of the decline of sexual morality in America; and I have before me at this very moment a copy of Liberty Magazine from June 4, 1938 containing his article “What is Wrong with American Youth?” On the cover of the magazine is a smiling wedded couple, with the groom carrying the bride over the threshold.

If I was perplexed and could not find a ready answer to a question being discussed in the press, I consulted a very old source indeed – Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. To these ideas, I added whatever rhetorical effect I could, gleaned here and there from old writers on oratory and poetics. Old books were my armory and my armamentarium, and from these I drew my resources.

Thus, whatever was good in my writing was not of my own doing. My insights, such as they were, were merely light reflected from a very old and ancient sun, the teachings of the Church. Illumined and guided by this light, I was at all times convinced of the truth of our own propositions; just as I was always aware, at every passing moment, of the errors of our opponents. I clearly discerned their arguments to be mired in deception; and I saw the truth of our own propositions shine forth with the light and the clarity of a proof by Euclid.

My editorial skills being somewhat lacking, I sent each column and opinion piece in advance to a good friend I had in made in New York in the years leading up to 9-11, Miss Andrea White. Miss White, a woman of great wisdom, patiently guided me back to sound and simple truths when my fancy threatened to carry me off the proper path.

We have then at the heart of my narrative a story that is not really about voting and politics at all, but a story about the nature of the Christian life, where our duties lie, and what we may expect as a reward.

Those who enlisted in the battle to save marriage fell in the estimation of the world. Many lost their livelihoods and went on to make very meager livings. Others were persecuted in the courts. Some fell ill. And others, as in the case of M.D. Harmon, went on to strange and sad ends. For most, defending marriage proved to be a type of martyrdom. Those who compromised with the world rose in power and status, and grew in wealth and pride.

Rarely have the powers of darkness worked with more ferocity, crushing down to earth those who seek to do God’s will, and raising up those who do their bidding. The forces unleashed against the Church by the homosexual rights movement are Hellish. As Dr. Scott Lively claims, the homosexual rights movement may be the capstone of the heresy found in the Last Days, as predicted by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2:

“But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will stealthily introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master having bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with tales they have concocted.”

And the destruction will be carried out in the name of tolerance, under the banner of an all-inclusive rainbow. Tolerance will be, as Bishop Fulton Sheen correctly predicted, the doctrine and the organizing principle of the Antichrist.

Now, at the end of my journey, I find that the battle to save marriage – and holy matrimony is a much better term – was not a political battle after all, but a battle for the souls of men, and for my own soul as well. Along the way I became convinced that marriage is permanent and indissoluble, a sacrament needed for our salvation. And it became clear to me that we are engaged in a battle between light and darkness, between Heaven and Hell, between God and the Devil, between compromise with the world and fidelity to the truth; and in the process, we are choosing our own eternal destiny.

I said I would defer Mike Heath his due praise until the end of the story, and I offer this as a brief addendum. There were other heroes in this battle, all worthy of note, but Heath, who led the resistance, was the most Christ-like.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Dave Deschesne, editor and publisher of the Fort Fairfield Journal for allowing me to publish this brief reminiscence. I am also grateful for his allowing me to publish my column “Old Embers for New Torches” in which I reviewed old works of interest to the conservative movement. One may gain a better understanding of my spiritual journey by reading that column.