I understand that "don't ask, don't tell" is considered a more "tolerant" alternative to policies that try to root homosexuals out of institutions, whether those institutions are secular or religious. But "don't ask, don't tell" really means that it's all right to be gay as long as you don't disturb anyone by actually saying that you are gay, and by demanding that you be treated with the same respect as any heterosexual man or woman.

I couldn't care less how religious institutions treat their gay clergy or gay members. If I were gay, I wouldn't waste my time or emotional energy trying to gain acknowledgment from Christian fundamentalists, Orthodox Jews, traditional Muslims, or any other religions that base their ideas about sexuality on texts written thousands of years ago by men who believed that the sun revolved around the earth.

Charles W. Colson, in his On Faith entry this week, asks why anyone would want to belong to a religion that does not believe in the literal truth of the Bible. I ask why anyone would want to belong to a church that does believe in the literal truth of the Bible. But if you choose to believe that virgins can give birth, that human beings can live to be 900 years old, and other sundry literal "truths" in the Good Book, then it is probably easy to believe that people who are physically attracted to members of their own sex are damned.

There are plenty of religious denominations that do respect gays as spiritual equals, and gay men and women of should look to those faiths for spiritual solace. Churches, like individuals, are perfectly free to preach any bigoted message under our Constitution. And members who disagree with those bigoted messages are perfectly free to find their salvation and comfort elsewhere.

What really infuriates me, however, is the idea that men and women enlisted in what is supposed to be our secular military should have to hide their sexual orientation in order to serve their country. Imagine the combination of immorality and sheer stupidity involved in government and military institutions firing Arabic-speaking translators for being gay.

The rationale for rooting gays out of intelligence agencies in the past was that they would be subject to blackmail. Well, no one who is honest about his or her sexual orientation is subject to blackmail. The only reason for any discrimination against gays in government institutions today is deeply rooted religious prejudice against homosexuality. This has no place in 21st century government in a nation founded upon the separation of church and state.

Any policy that requires people to shut up about their deepest human needs and loves is indefensible.