By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League
July 16, 2014
RALEIGH — “The courts have been operating on the question of marriage in a tyrannical fashion,” the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, told a crowd gathered outside the Capitol on Tuesday as he challenged the Governor and Attorney General to use every legal means necessary to defend the state’s marriage amendment. Dr. Creech was one of four speakers featured at a press conference sponsored by the North Carolina Pastors’ Network in anticipation of an upcoming ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a Virginia case that could upend the law passed by Tar Heel voters on May 8, 2012.
Outlining a host of challenges the amendment had faced, Dr. Creech said in spite of an “incredible mountain of opposition,” much of it from outside the state, the people of North Carolina “declared that marriage is foundational to our culture, that it is an institution of such profound significance that its fate should not be left to the uninformed notions of activist judges or legislators.”
Dr. Creech’s appeal followed equally passionate pleas for marriage protection from the Rev. Patrick Wooden, senior pastor of Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, and the Rev. Mark Harris, senior pastor of First Baptist of Charlotte. Kenneth Carrico, NCPN executive director, opened the 10 a.m. event, and the Rev. Bate Garman, pastor of Life Church in Morganton, read a statement from NCPN president David Kistler.
“We reject the continuing arrogant decisions of the federal courts that assume the right to supersede the constitutional rights of states by negating … state laws and amendments that limit marriage to one man and one woman,” Garman read.
“Additionally, we have the right to expect that our state attorney Roy Cooper should defend our amendment since he is sworn his oath of office to do so. However, Mr. Cooper is on record stating that he is opposed to our state’s marriage protection amendment and appears completely unwilling to defend it.”
That reticence is what led NCPN to call on the state’s Executive Branch to file an immediate appeal if the three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit rules as expected later this month. Attendees at the press conference signed a petition to that effect, rejecting the “continuing, arrogant decisions of federal courts,” a trend that Harris characterized as an “attitude of judicial supremacy that is perhaps the greatest heresy of our times.”
The former president of the State Baptist Convention said it is crucial for Gov. McCrory and the General Assembly to “not capitulate to this judicial heresy,” but to honor their oaths of office by defending the Marriage Protection Amendment.
Rev. Wooden said already 73 percent of African-American children grow up in homes without fathers.
“We do not need to add to the mix a redefining of marriage, where young black boys and young black girls would now be brought up in homes where there are two moms or two dads, only to add to the confusion,” he said.
Wooden said North Carolinians had sent a message both “loud and clear” by passing the Marriage Protection Amendment and that it should be vigorously defended.
Dr. Creech said that loud and clear 61 to 39 percent vote showed that, “Marriage and how we define it should be left to ‘we the people.’”
“It is a sad, sad day when a government which was meant to be of the people, by the people and for the people has become a government of the courts, by the courts and for the courts,” he added, reminding the crowd of Benjamin Franklin’s suggested motto for America’s national seal: “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”
Read Related Stories:
Biblical Recorder: Pastors: McCrory Must Defend Marriage Law
Christian Post: North Carolina Pastors Demand Gov. Pat McCrory Defend State’s Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage
Washington Post: North Carolina Pastors Rally for Gay Marriage Ban
To listen to audio of the Press Conference, click here