Lesbian Pastor Convinces NC Church to Support Gay Marriage
Under the guidance of their reportedly wayward lesbian pastor, the churchgoers at Raleigh’s Pullen Memorial Baptist Church voted Sunday to bar her from performing any marriages until same-sex marriage is legal in the state.
The church claims that North Carolina law legally only recognizes marriage between men and women and that it is discriminatory because it “denies them the rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexual married couples,” according to website NewsObserver.
Therefore, although heterosexual marriages will still be held and performed at the church, the head minister will not sign the certificate required to validate the holy union.
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Nancy Petty, a known lesbian and advocate of homosexual marriage, led the North Carolina church. Petty started a discussion about same-sex marriage this past summer, encouraging her followers and the surrounding community to follow her in supporting gay marriage.
The North Carolina congregation also chose to redefine marriage in 1992, and began uniting gay couples from around the state. The Southern Baptist Convention, of which they were a part, immediately ejected them from denomination.
Pullen Church remains a part of American Baptist Churches U.S.A. that has 1.3 million members, compared to the S.B.C's 16 million.
In contrast to the Pullen Church's views are conservative viewpoints, such as those of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
Sen. Santorum is known for his rigid moral stance concerning the direction of country and the importance of the continuing structure of the American family.
Still, for his recent comment on sodomy, many media outlets lambasted Santorum. He said that sodomy undermines "the basic tenets of our society and the family."
Agreeing with the Christian conservative perspective is Mathew Staver, the president and general counsel of Liberty University
Staver, when asked several years ago about a Supreme court decision supporting gay marriage, said: "The goal of the radical homosexual agenda is to eliminate any and all laws regulating consensual sexual conduct... This would mean the elimination of laws banning polygamy as well as those that ban sex between adults and minors."
As Staver said, a major issue with the demands of homosexuals is the possibility that gay marriage would not be the only act lawfully accepted, were it legalized.
Lawmakers would need to draw the line as far as illegal sexual acts, which remains a dilemma in the ever-evolving battle between gay marriage advocates and sociopolitical conservatives.
