On Tuesday, May 1, I attended the County Commissioners’ meeting, and eleven of us asked the commissioners to repeal their support of Amendment One. The speakers spoke very effectively about why this support should be repealed. Then Jim Deal made a motion to repeal, which was seconded by Tim Futrelle. Mr. Deal articulated the need to have separation of church and state and talked about the importance of this ever since the founding of our country. However, the majority of the commissioners voted not to repeal their support.
I believe that in the case of Amendment One, the church and the state are melding and are becoming inseparable. Many of the arguments for this Amendment are based on Biblical scriptures. However, there is much diversity in the state of North Carolina, including diversity within the Christian community.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” If Amendment One is passed, our state government will be forcing us to practice the religion of some people, and we will not have the freedom to practice our own religion.
Not only the separation of church and state occurring in our state, but also in other states and in the nation. During the campaigning for the primaries, particularly as the several Republicans campaigned to become the presidential candidate, there was an extreme amount of focus on what is considered to be “the” Christian point of view. Again, this represented one point of view among Christians, and all non-Christians were not considered.
Please consider when you vote in November whether the candidate you favor and whether the amendment you vote for will be tearing down the wall between church and state. We all want to worship and must have the freedom to do so in our own chosen way.
Cynthia Kittle