I have a can of worms in front of me. I am opening it. Oh, there’s a nice fat, juicy one.

You have my permission. You may call me a homophobe.

In the broadest sense of the word, we are all homophobes.

The term, ‘homophobe’ derives, fittingly enough, from two Greek words, homo and phobos.

Literally, the word means, "one who fears man."

So, if you’ve ever heard footsteps behind you on a darkened street corner or spent more than five seconds worrying about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capabilities, then you, too, are a homophobe.

Somewhere along the line, some PR flack for the homosexual rights movement coined the modern-day term and gave it a rather perverse twist. The latest incarnation includes a secondary meaning, which has been grafted onto the root.

A homophobe is now anyone who fears homosexuals or homosexuality.

Let me assure you, I hate no one. I do not advocate violence toward anyone. And I believe our Constitution guarantees us the right to be wrong. What anyone chooses to do in the privacy of his or her bedroom is none of my business.

Adam and Eve were granted the right to choose obedience or sin. It is that right to choose that makes us free moral agents.

Still, society HAS chosen to legislate morality where it has an overriding interest. "Thou shalt not kill," is man’s law as well as his Creator’s. Even then, we have the choice to obey or face the consequences.

What I and other concerned conservatives object to is the intrusion of the homosexual agenda into inappropriate settings, and especially taking sides at taxpayer expense.

When the Governor of Massachusetts allows state-sanctioned, tax-supported, explicit, how-to seminars promoting sodomy for 14 to 21-year-olds, we consider that a blatant misuse of our tax dollars.

But just try and raise that example…or point out the rise in AIDS and other communicable diseases and you’re labeled a homophobe or silenced altogether.

The reasons for choosing this column as my "coming out" piece were two judicial rulings, last week. We celebrate the ruling of a three-judge appeals panel that a New Jersey school board overstepped its boundaries by denying students their constitutional rights to free speech. The students had dared to speak out against homosexual behavior on biblical and moral grounds and the court held the school board rules outlawing such opposition constituted an overly broad suppression of the first amendment.

The father of one of the children took the school board to court and lost the first verdict but won on appeal.

This decision is an important one for the preservation of our basic freedoms, whether one agrees with the plaintiff students or not.

It allows a variety of viewpoints to be heard…and the last time I checked, that was what America was all about.

A second ruling should anger those who fear government intrusion into our lives. A New Jersey court threw out the challenge to another New Jersey School District that had put a supposedly voluntary questionnaire to two thousand middle and senior high school students about their most personal habits, including the use of drugs and sexual activities.

Aided by the Rutherford Institute, parents had objected that such intrusive questions would be put to their children without parental notification. When asked whether 100 percent of the students had responded, school district officials admitted the percentage was "very high." The kids were apparently never told the survey was optional and were ordered to answer every question, including, "Have you ever tried to kill yourself," and "When you have sex, how often to you use a birth control method?"

A 27-page ruling from Judge Nicholas Politan noted the so-called, voluntary basis of the questionnaire and rejected the parents’ suit. His ruling will also be taken to an appeals court.

Once again, we’re told, intrusive questions on homosexual activity were raised during the survey.

It is my opinion that America is at its best when such issues are not rammed down our collective throats. Let there be a free discussion but without societal or governmental foregone conclusions. And let those who refuse to be swayed by the permissive, PC standards of the day, not be labeled as second-class, mentally-challenged, stone-age cretins.

There, it’s out of my system.

If you think I fear the moral decay of our society may lead to its collapse, you’re right. Look at the Roman empire and before that, ancient Greece. Homosexuality was not the ONLY reason those great civilizations fell…but it did become a contributing factor.

Loose living of all kinds leads to individual and corporate demise. I have experienced this in my own life and fight temptation on a daily basis. Some people, however, have run up the white flag and switched sides. That’s just sad.

If daring to publicly make such statements makes me a homophobe, then put that on the back of my XFL jersey.

I’ll wear it proudly.

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