God doesn't plan to vote on this

I wanted to write something about Amendment One, and, while I’m up on all the arguments against writing discrimination into our state constitution (and endangering millions of families to boot), I’m not as familiar with the arguments its supporters are making. It’s always best to find out what your opponents are actually saying, not just to put words in their mouths. So I went to source – the website for Vote for Marriage NC. And that’s where I learned about this:

Tomorrow is Marriage Sunday, “an early voting awareness campaign focused on equipping churches and citizens to vote FOR the Marriage Protection Amendment during the 4/19-5/5 early voting window. Churches participating in Marriage Sunday are encouraged to preach a marriage themed sermon on April 29th, and encourage congregants to vote early on Monday April 30th.

Participants and churches are encouraged to raise awareness of the Marriage Protection Amendment by fulfilling five goals listed within the Marriage Sunday Kit. The five goals are:

• GOAL 1: Registering on our Grassroots Dashboard.
• GOAL 2: Preaching a Marriage Related Sermon (4/29).
• GOAL 3: Showcasing a Coalition Church Video (4/29).
• GOAL 4: Hosting a Phone Bank.
• GOAL 5: Encouraging and Securing Early Voting (4/29, 4/30).

That’s all directly from the website, and it seriously pissed me off. Churches are exempt from paying taxes, and in return they aren’t supposed to get involved in politics. There’s some gray area when it comes to advocating on legislative issues (as opposed to individual candidates), and it’s common for churches to push their members to the polls. But they don’t get to tell members how to vote… at least, they shouldn’t. 

What’s particularly galling here is that this group has at this moment on its homepage a press release demanding the resignation of a UNCG staff member who sent an anti-Amendment One email through his university email account. Its chair calls this “an outrageous use of taxpayer resources in violation of university policy and state law” and wants the staffer to “write a check to taxpayers.”

(Sidebar: what the frak? This lady does know that there’s not a checking account somewhere labeled “Taxpayers,” right? Or does she just want this provost to write 8 million checks for a tenth of one cent to everyone in North Carolina? Because I’m pretty sure that whatever “university resources” are involved in sending a single email don’t amount to a whole lot monetarily. Oh, right, I forgot – the Amendment One people are all about empty political gestures.)

So… an employee of a public university sending an email to his own contacts needs to be publicly called out and/or unemployed, but Vote for Marriage can provide religious groups with How to Violate Your Tax Status Kits, and that’s okay?

Another thing that jumped out at me from that press release: “These academics are so insulated and live in such an ivory tower that they think they can do and say anything they want at our expense,” Fitzgerald said. “This is an example of why the marriage amendment is so necessary. It puts voters in charge of our definition of marriage and protects marriage from being redefined by the elite in academia, and activist judges on our courts.”

Wow, it’s like Persecuted Conservative Bingo! Academics, Ivory Tower, Elites AND Activist Judges all on one card! Or, put another way, what do the people who’ve devoted their lives to studying law and practicing public policy know, anyway? Ms. Fitzgerald's complex aside, the fact is that same sex marriage is already illegal in North Carolina, and even same sex marriages performed in other states aren't valid here.

I’m not an expert on tax exemptions or whatever law Vote for Marriage is walking like a tightrope with their “Marriage Sunday.” But I do know this – anyone who genuinely wants to support families doesn’t support a law that carves millions of them out of existing legal protections. Anyone who claims to revere our constitution doesn’t support writing bigotry into it. And, as should go without saying, anyone who calls herself a Christian doesn’t act like God loves some of us less.