On May 8th, North Carolina voters will cast their ballots on a proposed amendment to the constitution that reads like this:
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.
The amendment is one in a long line of state constitutional amendments that is intended to limit the rights of those who fall outside the norms of a ‘traditional marriage.’ As many have, I could talk about the damaging effects of this amendment as a legal document. It reaches far beyond marriage, which is already defined in North Carolina law, and will have implications for domestic violence, child custody, and medical treatment. I could tell you how domestic legal union is a term yet to be defined in state law, or that I believe this will have a negative impact on business in the state, or how it could draw our state into a long, unnecessary legal battle.
I could – but I think this amendment strikes deeper than all these possibilities. It strikes right to our hearts, our perspective on the world, and who we really are as people. And so I want to share my thoughts on these aspects instead. I am an American citizen, a Baptist, and a Jesus follower. It is because of these realities, not in spite of them, that I am voting against Amendment One. I am voting against because it is something deeply personal for me.
Because I am an American citizen, I am voting against Amendment One. I’ve heard it said that this country is a place where certain truths are self-evident, and that among them are the inalienable rights that every man, woman, and child is created equal. I’ve heard it said that all are entitled to protection under the law, not just protection for the status quo, but protection for the ideals of freedom. I’ve seen the beacon of this freedom, towering over the eastern coast of our nation, holding a light for all and bearing the words of witness that read: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” She is called the Mother of Exiles, and I have heard it said that this is the nature of democracy – that even the exiles are given a home.
I am voting against Amendment One because I believe the Equal Rights movement is the new boundary of these creeds and ideals. I believe that the rights of gay and lesbian citizen in this country are bound up in the integrity of these ideals, and the denial of rights is an insult to all declarations of America as the land of equality. I am voting against this amendment because, as Dr. King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This amendment is surely a threat to justice.
Because I am a Baptist, I am voting against Amendment One. My Baptist forebears fought for religious liberty and freedom of conscience in the United States. Roger Williams, one of the first Baptists in America, was exiled from the Puritan Massachusetts colony, and went on to found a haven of religious liberty at Rhode Island. There, he chartered a colony where Catholics, atheists, and Muslims, as well as any stripe of Protestant, would be free to worship as they pleased. He believed that no government should coerce faith, and that God alone should be the judge of conscience. In the same breath that he was fighting for his own life, Williams was fighting for the lives and freedoms of others. This led others to call Rhode Island the ‘sewer’ of America.
I believe in this tradition of the Baptists, and that we are at our best when we stand with and for those on the boundaries. Baptists seem to forget their history as a persecuted people group, and many are standing with the status quo on this issue. We need to be on the side of freedom of conscience, and not allow one moral interpretation of Scripture to be enshrined as the law of the land. We need to fight for our own rights and the rights of others as it pertains to this and all issues. And if there is a ditch where some huddled mass is standing, being persecuted for the consciences of those in it, their beliefs, or their way of life, then we need to jump down into the ditch as well. This amendment challenges the rich history of the Baptists, and demands that we live up to the foundations of our movement.
Because I am a Jesus follower, I am voting against Amendment One. Jesus was often found with the crowds that fell outside of the religious and political norms of society. He was found with the tax collectors and drunks and sinners. He had a chance encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well, an outsider because of her multiple partners. The leaders confronted him another time with a woman who had been caught in adultery and asked what her punishment should be. All fell well outside the norms of sexual and personal morality. And in none of these instances did Jesus condemn them. “Where are they, has no one condemned you?” he asks. “Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus pronounces. And why should we be fit to condemn more than Jesus Christ?
Jesus said his ministry was to the lost sheep of Israel – those pushed to the margins, those declared unclean, unfit, unworthy, those kept out of legal and religious good standing. He called them to love and reconciliation, not to be a part of a puritanical sect. And when Jesus was presented with a situation of need, the Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion – from the Greek, splagchnizomai, meaning in his guts. Those who had been casted out moved Jesus in his guts. I am voting against Amendment One because it is something that I believe to be wrong in my very guts.
Most of all, I am voting against Amendment One because it is personal. I am voting against Amendment One for my high school teacher, for my classmates at Wake Forest School of Divinity, for my friends right here in Winston-Salem. I am voting for children who face bullying and discrimination because of laws such as these and will get no protection. I am voting for the people in my church and people in churches everywhere, who sit in the pews week in and week out and don’t feel like they are accepted just the way they are. I am voting for those who have been scarred and abused and neglected for laws such as these.
I am voting against Amendment One because I believe if Jesus were anywhere today, he’d be standing right beside all of these people and he’d stay put until justice flowed like a mighty river. I am voting against because I have been convicted to my heart on these matters. I am an American citizen, a Baptist, a Jesus follower, and I am voting against Amendment One because for me, it is personal. “Here I stand,” Martin Luther said, “I can do no other, so help me God.” As we all search our consciences in the coming days, may we stand for these ideals and may God help us in North Carolina.
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