On Saturday night, February 25, at the Charlotte Convention Center, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) will hold its annual, $195-per-plate Carolinas Dinner, sponsored by the Charlotte Observer, Duke Energy, Bank of America, Wachovia, IBM, Audi, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Food Lion, Sir Speedy Press, and others. All these sponsors are rallying behind the call for “human rights” – but that is not what the HRC is really about. Rather, the HRC, with an annual $16 million budget, is devoted to special rights for homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgenders, while vigorously opposing those whom they call “extremists” and “radical right wing groups” – meaning those who define marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

Yes, the HRC fights for the “right” of a male employee to wear a dress to work and for the “right” of an employee undergoing a sex change to have special bathroom privileges while at the same time launching a “Stop Extremists” campaign to fight against those who support the Marriage Protection Amendment. In fact, the HRC expects such “extremist” views to be purged from the workplace through “diversity training.”

One can only ask: Has the world suddenly gone mad? Have we now entered a moral twilight zone in which men who wear makeup and women’s underwear are the highly-protected darlings of corporate America while those who hold to a definition of marriage that has been universally embraced since the dawn of history are branded radical right-wing extremists?

If a group wants to advocate special rights for homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgenders while branding the views of the majority of Americans “extremist,” that is their prerogative. But let them not hide behind the facade of “human rights,” as if they actually cared about the rights of all. The American people will not be duped forever.

Michael L. Brown, Ph.D. is the Director of the Coalition of Conscience, a network of Christian leaders and believers in the greater Charlotte area who are working together for moral and cultural change through the gospel.

Dr. Michael L. Brown
ICN Ministries
PO Box 1446
Harrisburg, NC 28075
704-782-3760
e-mail: ministry@icnministries.org