When J. C. Penney hired Ellen Degeneres as its new spokeswoman, the conservative organization One Million Moms protested, claiming that the store was "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon."

As you may have heard, the protest backfired pretty spectacularly.

Personally, I think One Million Moms was in the wrong. They accused J. C. Penney of taking sides in the culture war, but in fact, all the chain had hired Degeneres to do was to promote their stores. Period. That's it. They did it not because she's a lesbian, but because she's a well-known, well-liked TV personality.

So the group comes off looking like they're in favor of denying a person a job strictly on the basis of her sexual practices, for a job in which those practices are simply not relevant. Which plays into every ugly stereotype that's been put out there about traditionalists. If J. C. Penney had hired Ellen Degeneres to talk about her views on sex, that would have been a different story, but they hadn't. In this case, One Million Moms was fighting a battle that just didn't exist.

You can't have it both ways. If you believe that the law shouldn't be changed based on what people do in the bedroom . . . then you believe the law shouldn't be changed based on what people do in the bedroom. Marriage laws or hiring laws, it makes no difference.

And for Christians, there's another concern. Christ told us that we were to preach to the sinners and make disciples of them, but He never said anything about denying them a chance to make a living. To try to do the latter just lessens the chances of accomplishing the former.