Maine: Small town manager accused of hate speech for supporting traditional marriage

Sadly, hate speech has come to our small community of China with our new town manager Dennis Heath. It is an unfortunate sign of the times that hate speech has washed across us from the president, governor, Waterville mayor and now the China town manager — and it seems to be acceptable.

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Facebook posts made and shared by China’s new town manager might raise questions about whether he can separate his religious views and beliefs from his work as a municipal official, but members of the town’s Select Board, which was unanimous in selecting him, were impressed with his background and skills.

Over the years, Dennis Heath, a 58-year-old pastor and career Air Force veteran, has made opinionated posts about women, homosexuals and Islam and shared articles from websites known to spread conspiracy theories and false news.

During his time in Stonewall, Heath shared articles and posts that stated he supported “traditional marriage.” After the Supreme Court’s decision in the case that legalized same-sex marriage, Heath shared an article in 2015 from The Blaze, conservative Glenn Beck’s television, radio and internet network, about the Texas attorney general declaring that local clerks could defy the ruling and deny marriage licenses to those couples. Accompanying the article, Heath wrote, “I would that all states follow suit. We can stand firm in our adherence to godly living against the tide of evil.”

When asked if he would allow a clerk to deny a same-sex couple a marriage license because of the clerk’s religious beliefs, Heath said he would not.

“The way it is now, I couldn’t do that and I wouldn’t do that,” he said Thursday from his office at the Town Office. “What I was essentially saying in respect to this whole thing is that the decision about what constitutes marriage legally is not something that the Constitution confers on the federal government or the judiciary; otherwise, it would have been included in the Constitution. It’s my opinion that it should be a decision that should be made by the states through their constitutions.”

He said, however, it is his religious belief that same-sex marriage is contrary to the Bible, but the fact that he has a religious belief that’s different does not give him the ability to override the law.

Also in 2015, Heath shared posts from other users disparaging the Muslim faith. One post that Heath shared showed a picture of a billboard that read, “Everything I ever needed to learn about Islam, I learned in five minutes on 9/11/2001.” Heath said those were the words of someone else that he shared. “Essentially, that’s me saying, ‘I can see that.'”

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