RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Members of a North Carolina Baptist church voted unanimously Nov. 20 to stop performing civil marriages until it becomes legal for same-sex couples to wed.
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., says current state law and a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman discriminate against same-sex couples by denying them rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexuals.
“As people of faith, affirming the Christian teaching that before God all people are equal, we will no longer participate in this discrimination,” the congregation affirmed in a Marriage Equality Statement posted on the church website.
The church’s new policy is to treat same-sex and opposite-sex couples equally. All marriage ceremonies at the church will be spiritual occasions to solemnize commitments between couples in a loving relationship. To obtain legal status, straight couples will turn to another source like a local magistrate “until such time as the State of North Carolina recognizes the legal union of both heterosexual and same-sex couples.”
The vote came four months after Pastor Nancy Petty, a lesbian, said in a sermon that she wanted to be relieved of her pastoral duty to perform legal weddings.
“Every time I sign a marriage license for a heterosexual couple and act as an agent of the state, I am reminded of those couples who I marry that are denied the basic human right to legally marry the person of their choice,” Petty said.
Petty said at the time she didn’t know if the deacons would honor her request or if the matter would come to a vote before the church. After the Nov. 20 vote she described the congregation as “a prophetic witness for human rights based on their faith conviction that all people are created in the image of God, that all people are equal in God’s kingdom, and that God’s love is radically inclusive.”
“This congregation is a remarkable example of what it means to be the people of God in the world for these times in which we are living,” Petty said. “Their counter-witness to those who preach about a God whose love is exclusive and unwelcoming is nothing short of amazing grace to all who are exiled from the church simply because of whom they love and want to marry.”
A 2008 study titled What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality by former Pullen pastor Jack McKinney warned against taking the Bible too literally.
“We have been told that the Bible clearly denounces homosexuality,” he wrote. “In reality, there is not a single text in the Scripture that talks about the psychological or sociological definitions of homosexuality.”
The only passages that even touch on the issue present the love between people of the same gender in a positive light, he said, citing the example of David and Jonathan.
Pullen is affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches USA and part of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. Two decades ago the congregation was kicked out of both the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and Southern Baptist Convention for its attitude of openness and inclusivity of gays.
At their recent annual meeting, North Carolina Baptists endorsed a ballot measure to amend the state’s constitution to read “Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
“Protecting marriage as the union between one man and one woman is critically important to preserving the family, our children, the repopulation and economic viability of North Carolina, and North Carolina’s reputation as one of the best states in the nation in which to work and live,” the resolution stated.
Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.