Amendment One Proponents Warn Marriage Equality Threatens Liberty, Society

North Carolina activists pushing Amendment One, the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state, met at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where Richard Land said that the referendum “is not about gay rights” but about whether marriage will “be transformed by the whims of a minority,” i.e. gays and lesbians. Land tied marriage equality for gays and lesbians to growing rates of single motherhood, and said that North Carolina vote would influence a potential Supreme Court case on same-sex marriage. Tami Fitzgerald of the North Carolina Values Coalition, the group behind the campaign in favor of Amendment One, added that “gay marriage is the beginning of the end for religious freedom,” and the seminar professor Daniel Heimbach said marriage equality “will harm everybody by harming social stability”:

"If the people speak in North Carolina, and also in other states, to affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman, it will tip the balance of the Supreme Court to reject trying to foist by judicial imperialism same-sex marriage on a populous that is clearly opposed to it," Land said at the March 28 forum.

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Land went on to say that the federal government spends $700 billion in domestic programs to support women and children due largely to the absence of fathers. The epidemic of fatherlessness has been "catastrophic" on America's landscape, Land mentioned. The issue, Land said, "is not about gay rights," but instead "about the basic building block of human society" -- and "whether we'll allow it to be transformed by the whims of a minority."

The issue of religious liberty was also discussed as gay rights groups throughout the United States have pursued legal action against Christian owned-companies and religiously affiliated adoption agencies, forcing compensatory damages and even closure. "This is not a question of sexual freedom, but of religious freedom," Land said. "The agenda of the homosexual community is to have their behavior and their lifestyle normalized and have same-sex marriage normalized and to have those who disagree with it to be ostracized."

Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of North Carolina Values Coalition, said that "when marriage is redefined as genderless, there are legal consequences for anyone who disagree with it."

"Everything from inheritance laws to property rights must then change," she said. "If you disagree with this, you're treated as a racist and as a bigot."

"Gay marriage is the beginning of the end for religious freedom," she said.

With upcoming votes on gay "marriage" in other states, Land said, the future of marriage could be settled in the next 18 months. No state has, by popular vote, chosen to create same-sex "marriage," Land said.

Gay marriage proponents insist that the proposed amendment is unnecessary, discriminatory and unfairly targets gay persons. Daniel Heimbach, an ethics professor at Southeastern Seminary, said gay "marriage" is not about equality.

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"The harm of legalizing gay marriage will radically change marriage in a way that it will then deny all fixed structures," Heimbach said. "It will de-institutionalize marriage as an institution.

"It will harm everybody by harming social stability."