Mr. McCance

WARNING: What follows may be the most controversial thing I've ever written on this blog. I felt compelled to write nonetheless. I hope you'll understand better why after you've read.

As I settled into my bed at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln last night, I flipped on the TV to watch the Thursday night football game. As I was working my way up the menu to find ESPN, I came across CNN. The story they were covering caught my attention. I honestly had not heard of Clint McCance before last night. Clint (for those of you who were like me) is an Arkansas school board member who posted comments on his Facebook page that were tasteless and intensely hateful regarding homosexuals. He used derogatory terms to describe them and even went so far as to say he wished for their demise. Please read what I am about to say carefully...I absolutely do not agree with Mr. McCance's stance or share his sentiments regarding homosexuality. Not at all.

I listened as Anderson Cooper went through the interview. His questions were rightfully pointed and tainted with disdain for Mr. McCance's behavior, especially as someone who works with children through education. One question, in particular, caught my attention. He asked something like, "Sir, do you understand how your words could have hurt any homosexual who might have read them and lead them to feel endangered or threatened?" It got me thinking.

Where are the protectors of the Christians? For decades we watched as a nation was taught how to look at each other as equals despite the color of their skin. I thank God that my kids are able to go to school with people of different skin colors, different backgrounds and different languages. Now, I watch with sadness as young people feel like the only choice they have is to take their life as they are belittled for a lifestyle choice they have made (no matter how much I disagree with that choice, any death is a sad one). But where is Anderson Cooper when hundreds of Christian kids are made fun of on a daily basis for praying at their flagpoles, bringing Bibles to school or telling their friends about church? Why hasn't the national press rushed to the aid of kids who are belittled for their faith?

I can tell you that, even in what used to be the Bible belt, all four of my kids have at some time been mocked for being a virgin, not drinking, being a pastor's kid, attending church regularly or choosing something differently because of their faith. What does it take for the national media to have a concern for their well-being?

Maybe it's because my kids haven't chosen to take their life because of it. I'll tell you why I think that is. Because, at the end of the day, my kids go to bed knowing they stood for a powerful, loving God who has not diminished...who has not failed...who will not go away...who will be there tomorrow morning when they wake up. On the other hand, I believe that the young people who have made the news recently were overwhelmed by the knowledge that they were mocked for a lifestyle that most Americans do not feel comfortable with. It's a lifestyle that has been rammed down our throats for the last two decades. It's been forced on our children in the public schools. It's been paraded literally, down our streets and in front of our children by half-dressed or lewdly dressed men and women. And...it stands in contradiction to what is the natural way of doing life, the one prescribed by God. (Before you argue that one man-one woman marriage has been rammed down our throats, note that it was not rammed. It was accepted for centuries because that's the way God established it in Genesis, the beginning).

I truly sympathize with the families of those who have lost children. As I said, I neither agree with Mr. McCance's words nor do I wish the death of any child. I just simply wonder why the national press is so quick to defend the children who are products of homosexuality (rightfully so) and not defend the child who is belittled for being a Christian. Or, for that matter, a Jew or having only one leg or talking with a lisp or being mentally challenged or...

Let the responses come. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I believe most Americans, though they don't feel comfortable about the way homosexuality is presented in America, stay quiet because they are afraid they will be mocked. Dare I say...bullied? And before you waste time, energy and keystrokes trying to change my mind on the matter. Don't bother. It's not my mind that matters. It's God's.