Written by Don Byrd
The Alliance of Baptists has joined a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the United Church of Christ challenging the constitutionality of provisions in North Carolina law which criminalize, they argue, the act of officiating a same-sex marriage ceremony.
Durham’s Herald-Sun has more:
The Rev. Diane Eubanks Hill, associate minister at Watts Street Baptist, which belongs to the alliance, said the group hopes the lawsuit will make it so pastors can marry whomever they feel called to marry.
“It’s an important religious liberties issue,” she said Thursday afternoon at a news conference at the church.
The lawsuit takes a unique strategy in challenging same-sex marriage bans by focusing not only on the right to be married but also on the right to perform marriage ceremonies as religious conscience dictates.
North Carolina’s Amendment One, passed by voters in 2012, prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex marriages. Another provision of state law (chapter 51, Section 7) says:
Every minister, officer, or any other person authorized to solemnize a marriage under the laws of this State, who marries any couple without a license being first delivered to that person, as required by law . . . shall . . . be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Taken together, the complaint argues, the law forbids clergy from performing religious ceremonies solemnizing a same-sex union in violation of the free exercise and free association guarantees of the First Amendment. An Alliance of Baptists press release announcing the decision to join the suit is here.
