Most merciful Heavenly Father,

On this National Day of Prayer we acknowledge you as the Father and Creator of all things, and the giver or life.

We praise you for the many gifts you have given us, especially the natural beauty and bountifulness of our land, our state, and our nation.

Help us to see that without you, no matter how wealthy and powerful we are, we are the poorest and most abject of all people.  

We are mindful that past, present, and future are always before you, and that you see us here today standing where many generations have stood before,  praising you, and humbly seeking your will.  We ask that we may be worthy of the efforts of those who have gone before. 

There is an old-fashioned look to Old Town. Main Street is flanked by a canoe factory, an Indian crafts store, and a small shop which sells mostly maps and compasses. Men wear red mackinaw jackets, and women drive to Hannaford's in pickups.  To many, the town seems like a frontier outpost, a gateway to the Great North Woods.

The urban blight which has marred parts of Portland, Augusta, and other cities, has passed Old Town by.  Indian Island is even better.  Once you cross the long, green bridge over the Penobscot, you find a quiet and neat community. There is no litter, no graffiti, no urban sprawl. Everything is done on a small scale. There are one or two churches, a Penobscot museum well-worth the visit, and lots of warm and friendly people. The largest building in town is a high-stakes beano hall. Even so, it is a very modest structure compared with the enormous casino and seven-story hotel being built by Hollywood Slots.

Those who read my thoughts regularly will know that I am a casual observer of naval history. When I heard the Portland Press Herald say that Christians had lost this phase of the Culture Wars, I was reminded of a sea battle that took place in 1812.  On a bright autumn day, a large crowd gathered outside the Portland Observatory and listened to reports about a battle between the U.S.S. Enterprise and a British ship, the Boxer. Not long into the battle, a cannon blast blew away the main mast of the Boxer, and mortally wounded her captain. The Yanks called out for the Boxer to strike her colors; to which the English crew replied, "We cannot, since our flag is nailed to the mast."

I was able to hear Ruth Summers speak for the second time at a meeting this week.  She was impressive.  She represents her soldier husband well.  Charlie is running for the first district congressional seat.  He is not able to campaign because he is deployed to Iraq.  He won't get back until after the primary election in June.

While Mrs. Summers is impressive, Charlie's opponent Dean Scontras is more impressive still.  Mr. Scontras is taking a risk and running a campaign that violates the conventional poll driven wisdom of the Maine Republican Party.  Mr. Scontras must defeat Charlie, clearly the insider's favorite, to earn his go at the Democrats in the general election this fall.

Mr. Scontras put out a press release this week announcing his Faith and Values Coalition.  I was listed along with over twenty other respected pastors and leaders.

A Christian group is trying to resurrect a colonial era practice called "Fast Days."  The Jeremiah Project (JP) is urging Mainers to set aside April 10 as a day to refrain from some type of secular pursuit and use their free time for a spiritual purpose.

The Portland Press Herald (PPH) provides a bit of history here.

The PPH points out two possible reasons for the disappearance of the Fast Day.  One is discrimination against Roman Catholics.  The other is the increasing use of the day for entertainment.  The paper also highlights the Jeremiah Project's reference to "enemies" in their reasoning for resurrecting the practice.

The JP writes, "We find ourselves in Maine out of time and completely surrounded by an enemy that is more numerous and more sophisticated than we are, and we are quickly running out of options. Will you join us in this specific effort to humble ourselves, repent of our own sin, and pray for a revival of the Church of Jesus that will heal our land?"  The paper describes this as "strong language."

Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright is not going away.  His views are in the news everyday.  Who knows how long it will stay that way.  In America the media teases out the views of public figures whether they are religious or not.  That is the blessing of a free press.  I celebrate it.

One politician offered a quip to me last week on the phone.  He cast me in a favorable light in contrast to Wright.  It seems my outspokenness on homosexual issues over the years may have earned me a Wright-like profile in the view of some members of the public.  This politician quipped when someone equated me with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "I'd rather defend Mike Heath than Jeremiah Wright any day of the week."  It's a little disconcerting to be lumped in with Jeremiah Wright in any manner.  I'm encouraged, however, that I won the comparison with this particular politician.

I'll allow that I'm controversial.  I'd like to think it is because I refuse to surrender to the idea that sexual orientation is benign.  This idea is anything but harmless.  It is moral poison that destroys character.  It must be resisted.

It is time for another referendum on gay rights.  We have been licking our wounds long enough.  I'm not going to sit by doing nothing really meaningful and watch either the courts or the legislature further advance special rights for homosexuality.  Are you?

Here is what we must do.

We must launch a referendum to stop Maine from endorsing the special legal right to sexual promiscuity.  So called "gay" activists want to rob our civilization of the legal and social concept of marriage.  They want to replace it with the very special (in the bad sense) construct called civil unions.

Everyone has the right to marry already.  Nobody should have legal rights that are premised on being sexually promiscuous!  NO SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR HOMOSEXUALITY!  PERIOD!!

Can common sense prevail in a political culture that won't "stir the pot?"  I wonder.

That seems to be the driving force behind one side's strategy to remain influential in Maine politics.  I'm, of course. referring to the Maine Republican Party.  And many times over the years I have been confronted with this challenge.

On one side you have a political media and party (Democrats) who stir the pot continuously.  They do so, however, only in order to advance collectivist ideas.  They require that power concentrate in their institutions -- either the Democrat party or in their profession (journalism).

On the other side you have the Republicans who have developed an allergy to confrontation and winning.  We (I'm now a registered Republican) have decided to make nice until Maine is reabsorbed into Massachusetts.  Republicans caucus in the phone booth on Beacon Hill.