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Pastor Bob Emrich says he’s tried to keep the emphasis on marriage, rather than on “homosexual behavior.”

PLYMOUTH — On a beautiful Sunday, in a small white church in rural Maine, the Rev. Bob Emrich began his sermon by recalling a question he'd been asked by a television reporter.

"Is this a religious issue?" Emrich was asked.

Emrich, a major player in the effort to overturn the state's gay-marriage law, said at that moment, he didn't have a good answer to the question.

But on this Sunday, he used the question as a way to share his belief that religion shouldn't be confined by the walls of a church.

"It's sort of sad the question even needs to be asked," he said to the 70 or so gathered. "Every part of life is defined by your relationship to God."

For Emrich, a 58-year-old native of Oregon, a life devoted to Christianity – and a deep interest in history and politics – led him to join with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland to fight gay marriage.

"I think it's very important," he said. "It's always important when you take an institution like marriage that has been a part of society for so long and to make such a fundamental change to it. It has to be important. It has such a wide impact."

Emrich emerged as the public face of gay-marriage opposition after disagreements on strategy with Michael Heath.

Heath, who stepped down last month as executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council, had for years fought attempts by activists to add gays and lesbians to the list of classes protected from discrimination.

Emrich said disagreements about how to wage the marriage campaign – particularly the tone – led to a split with Heath, who recently launched a private consulting firm.

"It's difficult," Emrich said. "Mike has been leading the social conservative movement for 15-20 years. For someone else to come along and say 'let's try something different' is hard to do."

Yet it may prove to be a critical decision that affects the outcome of the election.

Changing the public face of the opposition was a smart move and has led to a more civil debate this time around, said Dennis Bailey, a political strategist who is not being paid by either campaign.

"The danger was always that Mike would say something to electrify the opposition to stir them up," Bailey said. "I think there was a lot of fear it would get personal and nasty, and I don't think it has."

And while the public face may be different, the goal is the same: Overturn the new state law that allows same-sex couples to get married in Maine.

BECOMING A CHRISTIAN IN COLLEGE

After high school in northwest Oregon, Emrich graduated from Clatsop Community College and worked in forestry for a time.

"While I was going to college, that's when I first became a Christian," he said. "I had no idea what that meant. I never went to church growing up at all."

A self-described "farm kid," Emrich said he decided to move east to attend the New Brunswick Bible Institute because they offered to let him pay part of the cost by working on a farm.

After that, he signed up to go on a mission to Bangladesh in 1978, but political tensions meant their visas were denied.

Emrich wasn't sure what he wanted to do next, but a pastor from Machias asked him to work on a youth program. He spent five years in Machias, until he took over as pastor at a church in Monticello in Aroostook County.

From there he moved to Sangerville and attended the University of Maine to get a degree in education and history. He used his degree to get a teaching job in Guilford, where he taught social studies for about nine years.

In Sangerville, Emrich met his future wife.

"She made a cup of coffee," he said. "It was the worst coffee I ever drank in my whole life. It was so nice of her to make the coffee for us, I was polite and tried to drink it anyway."

They married in 1991 at a church in Veazie.

While teaching in Guilford,...