Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

You’ll discover those words tucked within the pages of the book that purportedly frames the Christian Civic League’s approach to public policy.

And if you’ve followed with any sense of detachment the misstep, mea culpa and month’s suspension of the league’s loquacious leader, Michael Heath, you appreciate the irony.

Heath’s unraveling stemmed not from what he speaketh but what he thinketh and then typeth, presumably before he consulted his board of directors or any member of the organization’s grassroots constituency.

In a Web-based query for “tips, rumors, speculation and facts” about the sexual orientation of state lawmakers, Heath transplanted his heart from sleeve to information superhighway with self-destructive swiftness.

Fishing license?

Objection to this fishing expedition has precisely zilch to do with where you stand on same-sex marriages or civil unions. It’s all about common decency and treating others with the same level of respect you desire in return, another basic tenet of Christianity swallowed by Heath’s Pharisaic zeal.

Though they extol Bible passages interpreted to express God’s displeasure with sexual activity outside the boundaries of a marriage relationship between man and woman, Heath and the league’s silence about Scripture that denounces adultery, drunkenness, hatred, lying and hypocrisy is relatively deafening.

Have not those less politically prominent sins done more to destroy the American family and ideal than any target of this attempted espionage into House and Senate bedrooms?

Odious example aside, Heath’s action embodies the devolution of dissent and discourse in America. Spirited, intelligent debate is drowned out by demonization and ad hominem attacks. And seemingly anyone without both feet firmly entrenched in the radical center is capable of dishing the dirt.

Lest we forget it was Lee Umphrey, spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci and assuredly no ally of Heath’s, who labeled league sympathizers attending a recent rally against same-sex marriage as “cuckoo clocks.”

Not only would that unprovoked retort make any imaginative third-grader wince, it cast sweeping aspersions about thousands of like-minded Mainers whose socially conservative leanings make them neither mentally unstable nor politically irrelevant.

Heath’s nyah-nyah response dripped with destructiveness that outweighed its childishness by a metric ton.

Over the line

It implored adults allegedly embracing a higher standard to lower themselves to the most gossipy, unrighteous behavior imaginable, drawing the cockamamie conclusion that the end would justify the means.

Or, perhaps that should read, meanness.

Contrite with convenient timing, Heath backpedaled from his bully pulpit only after Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, journalists, doctors, lawyers, short-order cooks, hardened natives and critical thinkers from away ridiculed his bizarre behest.

The humiliated league then offered the only damage control fit to preserve a modicum of mainstream credibility: its 11-member board of directors convening Saturday and voting to suspend Heath.

Heath “crossed a line of ethical behavior into a realm of sinful gossip,” read a statement attributed to the board chairman, Rev. Dallas Henry of Oxford. Henry added that the embattled leader’s confession and repentance were consistent with Biblical values.

Going forward, Henry urged Christian Civic League supporters to “join in extending forgiveness to our brother and making a commitment to debate the important issues with respect for others and with compassion.”

Accept Heath as you will, but a hearty amen to the second half of that charge. That goes for all, spiritual and party affiliation inconsequential.

Those championing God, however, must tread with greater circumspection.

Christianity certainly entitles a believer to righteous indignation. One obligation inseparable from faith, however, is the expression of those convictions with consistency and in a manner that’s persuasive, not divisive.

In secular terms, choose your battles wisely and sweat the life-and-death stuff.

As documented in the Gospels, Christ measured his words and had a divine knack for choosing the proper moment to share each one.

He also demonstrated most of his compassion toward those whom the religious rabble branded “sinners” and reserved his lion’s share of condemnation for those who followed the letter of the law but missed its spirit by a desert mile.

During his remaining four weeks in exile, let’s hope Michael Heath rediscovers that truth.

Kalle Oakes is staff columnist. He may be reached by e-mail at koakes@sunjournal.com.

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