The U. S. Senate has repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"—the ultimate victory of political correctness over the protection of human life.
Senator John McCain valiantly opposed the repeal. But he was a good soldier when he lost. Referring to the members of our armed services, McCain said "They will do what is asked of them." But then he paused and gave an ominous warning: "But don't think there won't be a great cost."
He's right. The Senate's action flies in the face of polls showing that Marine and Army combat units strongly oppose the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'—these are filled with men, by the way, whose lives are in danger day in and day out.
And speaking of danger, I nominate for "Profiles in Courage" Marine Corps Commandant General Amos, who alone among the Pentagon brass publicly opposed the repeal. His career may be broken, but his integrity is intact.
Legal scholar Phillip Johnson said some years ago that the entire cultural war is being fought over the issue of sex, and he was right. Sexual liberty has become the ultimate virtue in American life.
But think of the implications of this. When I was in the Marines I felt perfectly secure taking a shower in the presence of other Marines. If there had been women in that shower area, there would have been chaos. And If I had thought for a moment that one of my fellow Marines was lusting after my body, I would have fled.
Where is our sense of modesty? Or of shame? What are we going to do with the military, provide private bathrooms out on the front lines? Or are we going to allow open homosexual conduct within a military combat unit?
The inevitable consequence of that is clear: People will die. Anybody who has served in an infantry platoon will tell you, as I know well, the vital importance of unit cohesion. You work together; you love one another as brothers because your lives are going to depend on it. There can be no favoritism—it's one for all and all for one. If a couple of men were to ‘hook up' in that platoon, it would destroy that bond.
Well, if gender or so-called sexual preferences don't matter in the military (and please, don't give me that hogwash hatched in academia that we simply "choose" our gender), then it shouldn't matter anywhere else. If we're forcing our troops to live with no distinction, why should we back home continue to enjoy the nicety of separate toilet facilities for men and women? We're hypocrites.
Here is another tragic case in which ignoring the biblical worldview leads to irrational, unsustainable decisions. The biblical worldview is clear: God made man and woman. He joined them together in marriage. He tells us that fornication, whether it's between two men, two women, or a man and a woman, is wrong.
The military used to consider extramarital sex as conduct unbefitting an officer. Now we openly sanction it. We have placed lives at risk, all to appease perhaps 2 to 4 percent of the population.
And McCain is right. There will be a cost: ugly incidents, good men turning away from the military.
OK, sadly the U.S. Senate has repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but let's keep the pressure on. Maybe another Congress will see the light and restore it. We've got to be relentless.
Yes, we respect the dignity of all human beings. But the homosexual agenda is about changing our moral order.
And as half a million signers of the Manhattan Declaration have declared, we will never compromise our convictions.
Chuck Colson's daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
Publication date: December 22, 2010
