Homosexual Partisans Who Fear the Level Playing Field

John C. Rankin (February 23, 2008)

Truth-telling is essential to a civil society. In my experience over the years, those who embrace “pansexuality” (sexual intimacy in any range of contexts outside of one man and one woman in marriage) cannot fully be truth-tellers. Indeed, not only is adultery by definition a lie, so too is heterosexual fornication and homosexuality. Such sexual actions are rooted most often in early brokenness in life, in various ways, but the answer is not to perpetuate the brokenness, rather it is to seeking healing in Jesus.

A Manufactured Excuse, and Chosen Silence

Recently I was forwarded an invitation to debate one of the nation’s top same-sex marriage advocates at a large state university. The invitation came from a person who had been invited, but who felt I was the man for this particular debate. Thus, I was put in contact with the campus sponsors. But as it turns out, after a behind the scenes process, I was thanked for my willingness, but I was not going to be invited.

Now, it is entirely their prerogative to invite whomever they want, and I honor their freedom. And had they simply told me that they wanted someone else, with no further reasons given, that would have settled the matter for me (but they are still looking for that “someone else”). In other words — a level playing field. I am free to invite whom I choose to address my Mars Hill Forum series, and they are free in such a matter of their own initiative.

Rather, an excuse was invented. I was told that their budget could not afford to cover my travel expenses from Connecticut, and that was the sole reason given for not inviting me, before some later qualifications that did not change the reality. So I asked them what remuneration the same-sex marriage advocate was receiving, and in fact, he is coming from a greater distance. They said they were paying him travel expenses, but when I asked them whether an honorarium was involved, no answer. Even yet, no equity on their part toward me, or theoretically anybody else. No concept of a level playing field.

So I contacted the same-sex marriage advocate, whom I had cc’d my original email to the campus group. He is a person with whom I have been in touch in the past, and it turns out that he does not want me to be the debate opponent, though he has agreed in the past to address one of my Mars Hill Forums. I think this is the real reason behind the scenes. It not seems likely that he was the one who said no, and the campus sponsors were stuck in making an excuse. That is his freedom. But I also asked him if it were true that he was only receiving travel expenses, with no honorarium. At this point, he did not want to “belabor” the question any further. No answer. Then he said I was “harassing” the student leader of the college group by asking these questions. Another person involved in the process said, no, he was harassing the student by not owning up front the real reason. In a final email to him, he has yet to the question about the honorarium or his exact role in telling the college group not to invite me.

I have emailed the campus group to get a straight answer, twice, and thus far, no reply. It is good to expect honesty of all people with whom we have dealings. It is a ministry of the Gospel, it helps identify light versus darkness in the hope that God’s grace can enter in. Indeed, we need honestly in all business contracts, otherwise a civil society cannot exist. Back to the Ninth Commandment — do not bear false witness.

Truth-telling is so simple. Had the national same-sex marriage leader been confident enough to simply say no, and have the campus group tell me accordingly, that would have been it. But because he does not want the level playing field, excuses and lies were invented, and the dance of covering up these lies became more and more complex, to the point where at present they may well have cut off communication with me. This is the self-chosen silence of those who become ensnared in lies of their own making.

The truth is that where the light shines, the darkness retreats. Where a level playing field is offered, those who wish to manipulate the process flee. In this case, the national spokesperson wants “a local figure.” In other words, he does not want the most competent interlocutor available, but someone, it seems, who could be made into a caricature. This is the fear of a level playing field — namely, a set-up for the college audience.

Frequent Reality

This reality has happened often over the years. When a truly level playing field is offered to the most competent of skeptics of my biblical worldview and its political implications, more people back out than accept my invitations. They silence themselves, as did Jesus’s enemies during Passover week (the subject of a chapter in my recent book: “The Six Pillars of Honest Politics: The Biblical Nature of a Level Playing Field”).

Felonious Slander and the Fear of Matthew 18:15-17

Such fear of a level playing field happened last year with another national leader, a man who argues that homosexuality is “a gift of God.” He first agreed to a forum in a large venue, with a national audience, and the focus was to be on “homophobia and hate crimes,” two charges he makes against the church and society. I was letting his issues be in the forefront. But then he reneged. He could have simply said he was no longer interested, and that would have been that. In so doing, this man said the reason was that a group helping sponsor the forum was essentially evil: “GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered) people routinely lose their jobs, their children, their health, even their very lives because of what is said and done by groups like (this).”

This was slander, even a felonious charge. So, since this homosexual activist claims to be Christian, I said it was his responsibility to bring this charge, according to Jesus in Matthew 18:15-17, straight to the people he accused. He refused, and asked “that we not correspond further, please.” He silenced himself because he lives in the darkness. He is saying no to Jesus.

When No New Excuses Can Be Manufactured

With another leading same-sex marriage advocate years before, I saw this same reality. This person is a woman with a graduate degree in theology from an Ivy League university, and she gave excuses in declining several invitations, including one at a law school where the audience would have been overwhelmingly on her side. When she ran out of excuses, she finally said that she did not want to address a forum with me, period. She chose to silence herself. Zero interest in a level playing field. The radical nature of a level playing field is that it only benefits those who are seeking the truth. So those who opt out actually admit that truth is not their goal.

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