Did he ask that a gay be fired? Does he advocate that gays be persecuted? Does he advocate discrimination against gays? No. No. No.

He says that homosexuality is a problem -- yes, sinful -- and, perhaps worse, he suggests that individuals have choice and can change.

Choice, change, personal responsibility? In a free country? In the eyes of some, a crime.

Perhaps to add to the irony of it all, the name of Obama's gospel tour through South Carolina is "Embrace the Change."

Obama's milquetoast response to all this speaks, I think, to why his campaign has been fizzling. Rather taking an opportunity to lead, he's shown his preference for business-as-usual political pandering.

He added a gay black pastor to the tour to give the convocation, but has kept McClurkin on, despite issuing a statement that "I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views."

Obama's idea of inclusion -- being all things to all people -- amounts to being nothing to anyone. This is not leadership. Particularly when he lacks the courage to draw the connection between poverty and disease in the black community and wanton sexual behavior.

McClurkin's claim that individuals have sovereignty over their sexuality, rather than vice versa, is particularly dangerous to the gay-rights community. After all, the credibility of its whole case rests on the argument that this is not true.

The credibility of legislation, such as ENDA, also rests largely on the assumption that sexual behavior is as genetically determined as race.

But even more fundamentally, if we accept that we are slaves to our sexual impulses, then the "thou shalt not" prohibitions of the Bible become meaningless. If we are told to avoid behavior that is impossible to avoid, the Bible becomes a work of fiction and Christianity becomes a marginal lifestyle choice in our society.

This is what this is about. Not freedom, nor justice, nor fairness. But the displacement of one set of values with another and the wholesale politicization of our society.

Poor blacks are trying to crawl out of this hole. Let's not drag the rest of the country into it.