• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Partners in Health & Wholeness

Partners in Health & Wholeness

An initiative of the NC Council of Churches

Get Involved Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Values Statement
    • PHW Sustainability Pledge
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Current PHW Offerings
    • Abundant Life
    • Overdose Response
  • Focus Areas
  • Events
  • Resources
    • PHW Publications
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Interactive Map
  • Voices
  • NCCC

Search Partners in Health & Wholeness

Statement on Passage of Amendment One

May 9, 2012 · by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

In light of yesterday’s vote to add a discriminatory amendment about marriage to our state’s constitution, it is important to consider what was accomplished through this campaign and what it tells us about progress.

First, the fine work of a committed group of people has resulted in alliances and coalitions that hadn’t existed before. People with very different political beliefs spoke together against Amendment One. Secular and religious groups worked side by side to defeat it. Individuals who may not believe in gay marriage have come to realize that they also do not believe that the state’s foundational document, its bedrock of freedom, should be used to discriminate. These are not the results we sought, but they are ones we value.

It was just 1991, 21 years ago, when the North Carolina Council of Churches voiced its opposition to harassment, violence, and discrimination against people who are gay or lesbian. While that statement seems rather bland now, it was issued when some religious leaders in our country were proclaiming AIDS to be God’s punishment on gay men. It was a prophetic and controversial step for the Council at that time.

To come from that point to an election in which about 40% of a huge primary turnout voted against Amendment One is a clear reminder of how rapidly our society is changing. I suspect that Speaker of the House Thom Tillis, one of the architects of Amendment One, was correct when he said recently that this is a generational issue and that the amendment would be repealed within twenty years.

Sadly, we will live for those decades with discrimination written into our constitution, and we will have years of court cases to determine exactly what the manifestations of that amendment will be.

Christians sometimes talk about being citizens of two realms: the secular state and the realm of God. So I am a citizen of North Carolina, but I am also a citizen of God’s realm. Yesterday’s vote determines where the state of North Carolina is, at least for now, but it does not change my beliefs that God loves all of God’s children equally and that all of us are welcomed as full and beloved members of God’s family. Most Christian denominations profess those beliefs in their official statements. The task for all of us, during these interim years, will be to practice what we preach, to live in ways that manifest that we believe what we say we do.

Twenty years is a long time if you are one of the people being discriminated against, but it’s only a brief period in the arc of the moral universe about which Dr. King spoke. And we know that the arc is bending towards justice.

–George Reed, Executive Director

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Children & Youth, Civil Discourse, Civil Liberties, Domestic Violence, Equality & Reconciliation, Gender, Good Government, Health, Human Rights, Interfaith, LGBTQ, Religion & Society

About Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Aleta Payne first joined the Council staff in the spring of 2001 as the Communications Associate. She continues to oversee that work along with development, represents the Council in several partnership efforts, and serves in other administrative roles, as well. Aleta is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in government and foreign affairs and spent much of her early career as a journalist. She has three young adult sons who continue to come home to Cary for dinner, or at least groceries, and two young adult terrier-mix dogs who keep the nest from feeling too empty.

Footer

Contact

Partners in Health & Wholeness
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

Subscribe

Click here to subscribe to newsletters and blog updates.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 · Partners in Health & Wholeness · An Initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design