North Carolina's Amendment One: What's God Got to Do With It?

I spent the last two weeks with WAAAAYYY too many United Methodists. Throughout the weeks, those who supported the church removing its statement, "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" wore colored stoles to show their support. The church attempted to reconcile the hurt it has caused to its gay and lesbian members but was unsuccessful at passing legislation that would help mend the wounds. The church then, in a vote of 61% - 39% voted to keep the language currently in its Book of Discipline. When the vote to remove the 'incompatible' language failed, many who support gay and lesbian full acceptance in the church marched onto the floor and refused to leave until the bishops negotiated with them.

Then I came back to North Carolina.

Amendment One has been all over the news here and throughout the country and those voting to defeat the amendment have been adamant about placing signage in their yards. Honestly, with all the promotion I've seen against the amendment, I didn't think it had a chance at passing.

News flash: Bryant underestimates the conservatism in North Carolina.

The best part of any breaking news story in 2012 is the mass amount of Facebook and Twitter trolling that occurs. When Bin Laden was killed, my news feed was split. When Obama cancelled NASA efforts, one would have thought they were calling for his resignation. The same was true today when I watched Amendment One pass with flying colors. Whoa.

My favorite argument: "This is God's plan. This is how God wants it to be."

GOD'S PLAN?!? WHAT DOES God HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS? Last time I checked, America was based on personal liberties, the right to not be under some sort of monarchical rule, and the right to not be told what religion to practice.

Friends, as I see it, America gave up on God A LONG TIME AGO. In America we care about free enterprise. We care about wealthy citizens. We care about the American Dream. We care little about the poor. And we, historically, have cared even less about the marginalized. Remember, we are a country that has based people's worth on the color of their skin. We have even based THEIR PRICE on the color of the skin and the calluses on their hands.

America doesn't care about what God wants. America only cares about what America wants.

Which leads me to a strange place with Amendment One. The majority ruled that they wanted marriage to be defined as between a man and a woman today in North Carolina. Fine. That's the way it goes. We live in a democracy where everyone has a right to their own opinion.

BUT PLEASE, OH PLEASE, DON'T BRING God INTO THIS! We gave up on the Almighty a long, long time ago. America was written under the paradigm of personal liberties and rights. And, somehow, we have been about taking away those rights and liberties ever since. It's a strange place to be in. Something tells me, too, that if those voting for Amendment One had taken God out of the picture completely, this vote would have been incredibly different.

See, the Church has a right to decide how it feels on the subject of Sin. It has a right to attempt to define it based on its own Biblical principles and historical teaching. It can do whatever it pleases and it's allowed to use God because she made it in the first place.

But, for America, no.

God's will has little to do with whether a gay man has a right to his partner's body and life insurance after his untimely death. God's will has little to do with whether a lesbian is allowed to know where in the military her partner is stationed. God's will has little to do with gay and lesbian rights in America.

Us Christians are living somewhat of a dual citizenship and our witness is being hurt by the way we throw one into the other so often.

-B

I use the term 'America' in substitution for the 'United States' simply because it seems to me to be a bit more pejorative. You're welcome.

Separation of State and...Church Related Institution?

I've been getting into The Chronicle at Duke recently.  It's published every day and has some interesting articles about a wide range of topics. Today's front page article was entitled "Methodist ties spark modern debate" You can read it online here.

The article explores the problems that Duke's campus police might run into, after the North Carolina court system dismissed charges against a Davidson College student who was arrested by Davidson police for Driving Under the Influence.  She claimed that (taken from the article),

her arrest by a campus police officer was an excessive and unconstitutional government entanglement with religion.

Essentially, they (the NC Court of Appeals) decided that because Davidson is considered to be a religious institution or at least retains "significant religious ties", the college must be stripped of its rights to exercise state police power.

Really? The girl was driving while impaired, and was arrested and all charges dropped against her because Davidson police can't arrest because of their religious affiliation?

The article goes on to talk about how this might affect Duke:

Indeed, Durham-based attorney Bill Thomas plans to challenge Duke University Police Department’s arrest powers on the same grounds.

“I think you’ll see that in the immediate future,” Thomas told the Herald-Sun.

He added that language in Duke’s bylaws suggests an “adherence to the Christian tradition and [the promotion of] Christianity.” He did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Chronicle.

Jerk.

This brings up an interesting idea. How can a school like Duke (private, religiously affiliated, yet relatively large) police its own campus?  If Duke were to have to call city police each time there is an incident, Durham police might have to provide Duke its own sector. Hmmm...we'd be back to where we are today.

I know very little about policing a college campus (although I have been involved in the process from time to time) but I would imagine that on a campus the size of Duke, officers must often be trained in specifics relative to the institution as well as typical training.

At Florida Southern, when there was a crisis that called for police action, we called the Lakeland Police Department.  But, we had very few of these instances and we didn't have the Cameron Crazies. Really, have you seen the Duke v. UNC games?

Duke University is a very reputable school that still (unlike many) has maintained its early Methodist (or even religious) ties. As it grows and expands, shouldn't it be allowed to be able to police its campus?

Only one more thing: MADD posts this statistic on their website:

In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). These deaths constitute 31.6 percent of the 37,261 total traffic fatalities in 2008. (Source:NHTSA, 2009)

No one should be allowed to drive while impaired with anything, get caught, and go free because they claim the arrest was unconstitutional.

I think that not killing someone is a Christian ideal.  A religious institution should be able to enforce this, just as state police can.

Drunk driving is against the law. Period.  Don't do it.

This is utterly ridiculous.

-B