By Peyton Majors
Christian Action League
December 21, 2022
A county-level chapter of the North Carolina Republican Party has censured the state’s two U.S. senators over their support for same-sex marriage and is urging the state party to do the same.
The Granville County Republican Party passed the resolution this month censuring Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis after the two men supported a bill codifying same-sex marriage. President Biden signed it into law.
The resolution quotes the national GOP platform as stating that traditional marriage “between one man and one woman” is the “foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values.” The resolution also notes that the state GOP platform defines marriage as the union of one man, one woman.
Burr and Tillis have, “by their votes, deliberately abandoned the national and state party platforms on marriage” and “damaged the reputation of the party and further marginalized the natural family,” it reads. The Granville County GOP resolution reaffirmed the definition of marriage as between one man, one woman.
Further, the resolution says the county GOP “repudiates the actions of Senators Tilis and Burr as a betrayal of Republican values” and “encourages the NCGOP to likewise censure Tillis and Burr at the state level.”
The new law supported by Burr and Tillis, dubbed the “Respect for Marriage Act,” defines marriage as a union “between 2 individuals” and officially repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which has defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman for the purposes of federal law.
Burr and Tillis were two of 12 Republican senators to support the bill. Burr and Tillis aren’t the only ones facing a backlash. In Indiana, Cass County Republican Chairman David Richey announced a censure of Sen. Todd Young. In Iowa, six GOP county chapters voted to censure Sen. Joni Ernst.
Meanwhile, leaders within the conservative movement also are pushing back on the arguments promoted by the 12 GOP senators. Tillis had emailed a statement to constituents asserting that the bill includes an amendment protecting “the religious freedoms of churches and religious organizations.”
Critics of the bill, though, say the religious liberty protections are far too narrow. The amendment backed by Burr and Tillis protects churches and religious organizations “whose principal purpose is the study, practice, or advancement of religion” from being forced to participate in the “solemnization or celebration” of a same-sex marriage.
Such an amendment does not protect Christian-owned businesses — such as florists and bakers — that have been involved in high-profile legal cases, critics say.
Travis Weber, vice president for policy and government affairs at the Family Research Council, penned a point-by-point rebuttal to Tillis’ letter.
Read: Why Senator Tillis Is Wrong That the ‘Respect for Marriage Act ’ Protects Religious Liberty
“No churches and religious schools are currently being forced to perform same-sex marriages,” Weber wrote at WashingtonStand.com. “The real concerns are with everything else surrounding one’s beliefs about marriage — such as a religious college that wants to enforce a code of conduct in its dorms to prohibit ‘couples’ of the same sex. Such an exercise of one’s beliefs about marriage is NOT protected by the current text of the Respect for Marriage Act (which only protects acts related to ‘the solemnization or celebration of a marriage’ — and only certain categories of potential victims at that) — despite claims that it is somehow a hearty protection for religious freedom.”
An amendment supported by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that offered robust religious liberty protections was defeated, Weber noted.
“If Republicans had taken a stand and insisted Lee’s amendment be included as a condition of their support,” Weber wrote, “they could have forced much stronger religious liberty protections into the bill.”
Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said:
“I believe it was Malcolm X who said the thing in life worse than death is betrayal. He said he could conceive of death, but he couldn’t conceive of betrayal. I, and so many other Republicans, must have given Senator Tillis too much credit. We would have never conceived that he would betray a principle of the Party Platform as sacred as the one supporting traditional marriage. Nevertheless, he did, and it is not hyperbole or melodrama to say that some of us mourn what he did the same way we would grieve the death of a good friend. What he did was so wrong! He makes a high-sounding defense supporting his actions, but no real defense exists. He must be held accountable. If he fails to acknowledge the error of his ways adequately, his political career should suffer a political death. This was nothing less than his arrogance, declaring to Republicans, “I know better what was needed in this case than you. I don’t believe the platform is right about this issue.”
