I was never trained in debate.  I’ve been in a few.  But my political skills came through experiences lobbying, and talking to reporters one-on-one.  Most of my public speaking occurred in front of sympathetic evangelical congregations.  I really am a nice guy.  Too nice.

I led the Christian Civic League of Maine through a tumultuous time institutionally.  More than a decade before I arrived as Executive Director the ministry was abandoned by the two most significant founding Protestant denominations — the United Methodists and Congregationalists.  The governance DNA was still congregational.  Moral, cultural … and especially religious … shifting within was seismic.  Like subduction of tectonic plates the result was volcanic.

There was only one leadership modality left effective by the time I arrived in the early 1990s — authoritarianism.  All the power in the League had devolved (or evolved if you’re a good fundamentalist Baptist) to the top administrative position of Executive Director.  When I arrived the League had a large board of directors, most of whom were supposed to be appointed by Maine Protestant Denominations.  When I left there were six or so directors, and the right of denominations to appoint members had been removed from the bylaws.

The board members remaining were willing to defend Christianity’s timeless, and politically effective, definition of sexual morality.  The leaders who followed me relaxed this stand, and obfuscated the positive effects of my leadership over the two decades I served.

I don’t blame them.  Every new authoritarian leader has to establish their power in contrast to the leader who preceded them in some manner.  Their strategy had the effect of burying my legacy under multiple layers of rock hard volcanic lava.  The League erased my twenty years just like I erased the previous ten years of my predecessor.  I tell myself that the lava wasn’t so thick, but I’m sure Jack doesn’t see it that way.

The leadership of the League is changing right now for the first time since I resigned in 2009.  I don’t expect this new administration to do what the retiring one did.  Within months they were in contact with my predecessor to heal the rift that opened when I was leader.  I did the same thing by reaching back to Ben Bubar Jr. while ignoring Jack Wyman.

There’s much I could write here about my relationship with Jack, and the things that happened during my years in the public spotlight.  I don’t know how to present them without self-justification so I’ll move on to my current thoughts.  If you’re interested in learning more leave a comment below.

You don’t give two decades of your life to something as significant as what the League accomplished in the fight over “gay” rights without wanting an emotional lifelong connection with the team.  I don’t, however, desire their appreciation at the cost of becoming gay myself.

And that’s what drove me out in 2009.  The rising gases of emotional gayness inside of Maine’s Christianity created a caldera that blew up beneath me.  Maine’s sky was darkened by the black ash cloud that eventuated in the Republican Party being conquered by Trump/LePage’s anti-woke agenda.

In a way that would make Hegel proud they split Christianity right down the middle playing politics with abortion, while praising all things gay.  The conservative synthesis is still hidden in the clouds.  I don’t think it will ever appear in the blue sky of truth because it is like a bad novel — fiction.  To put a more European spin on where we’re at I’ll reference the EU leader’s quote yesterday elevating the Jew’s Holy Book, the Talmud, over Christianity’s Bible.

I headlined this post, My Catholic Identity Means I’m Still Christian.  I opened thinking out loud about the idea of debating, and reminding myself — and you my dear reader — that I’m no master of debate.

Unconsciously I knew when I started writing that publicly identifying as Roman Catholic in Maine is a debate invitation for any dedicated Protestant.  I include Evangelicals as members of the Protestant movement.  Broadly thinking theologically there are only two versions of Christianity in Maine — Protestant and Catholic.

I don’t identify as Catholic to trigger a debate.  That’s an overly mindful response to my declaration of religious identity.  I identify as Catholic with other Christians to inspire a love (truth) drenched conversation that ends in a meeting of our minds on specific issues.  I identify as Catholic with non-Christians to introduce them to my guardian, the angel of war, Saint Michael.

Some folks suggest I may be mentally/emotionally compromised because I still think so deeply about my two decades of service at the League.  They sincerely ask, “Why can’t you move on?”

And I think to myself, “Would things be better in Maine today if voters took the League’s side on gayness back in the day?” 

Then I realize that it is obvious that things would be worse.  Things would be so boring without boys pretending to be girls, Trump lecturing our Governor and Laurel Libby not being allowed to represent her constituents in the Legislature.

Let’s stop fighting and admit that we’re all gay now.

Selah.