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SPARTANBURG, SC (June 07, 2010) - A proclamation signed by Mayor Junie White of Spartanburg declared June 19 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Day. The proclamation initially read:
WHEREAS, the city of Spartanburg supports efforts to ensure that everyone has the right to live in conditions of dignity, respect and peace; and
WHEREAS, the city of Spartanburg continues to advocate for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and is committed to equal treatment of all people; and
WHEREAS, Pride Week celebrations contribute to reducing discrimination, isolation, and barriers faced by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Two Spirited community,
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Junie L. White, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor of the city of Spartanburg, and on behalf of my fellow City Council members, do hereby proclaim June 19, 2010, as: LGBT PRIDE DAY.
When City councilwoman Linda Dogan found out about the proclamation, she demanded a revision or for it to be rescinded entirely. She said that the mayor did not talk with all council members before signing it. Dogan, who is African-American, was upset that the proclamation tries to equate civil rights and gay rights. She was also angered that the proclamation was for the day that slavery was officially rescinded.1
City Councilman Joe Spigner said, “The city shouldn’t be in the business of endorsing any lifestyle or behavior… and as a follower of Christ, I cannot go along or condone the lifestyle or behavior.”2 He said that proclamations do not have to be approved by the council but he would have appreciated advance notice due to the sensitive nature of the matter. He said he found out about the proclamation when he picked up a newspaper at 5:30 a.m. the next day.
Upstate Pride’s leaders reportedly drafted the proclamation after learning of similar proclamations in Atlanta, Ga., and Columbia, S.C. The group’s president, Joey Geier, said, "This proclamation by the city just really seals for us that we're making headway in this area." Upstate Pride expects more than 700 supporters to attend the parade this year.1
The mayor is a local businessman in Spartanburg who, when asked to sign the proclamation, agreed. He has said that it was the right thing to do despite the backlash from angered constituents. White will present the proclamation to Upstate Pride at its 2nd annual march and festival on June 19. The proclamation has been edited to be from the mayor only. White said he removed the words, "On behalf of my fellow City Council members," from the proclamation in order to keep the peace. White said he does not need the council's approval to pass a proclamation.1
The Executive Director of the Spartanburg Herald Journal wrote a strong rebuke of the mayor saying that his proclamation was an “abuse of power”. He said:
Every moral debate is at heart about religious faith. That faith dictates our sense of moral absolutes or our disbelief in any absolutes. That faith determines the moral authority we look to for our sense of right and wrong.
Only those with traditional religious faith are accused of improperly bringing their beliefs into the public discussion. Only they are told to take their sense of morality out of the public policy arena.
Others are encouraged to contribute their own moral sense, fostered by their own religious faith or the lack of such faith, to the public debate.
The debate over sexual issues is fundamentally a moral and therefore religious one.
If a mayor who believed the scriptural admonitions against homosexuality had issued a proclamation condemning the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day, he would be vilified by all those who support White's decision. They would cry that this mayor is forcing his religious beliefs on everyone in the city. And they would be right.
But it is also true that White is forcing his beliefs on everyone in the city, and because these are moral beliefs, they are fundamentally religious beliefs. By proclaiming Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day and putting the full weight of city government behind that declaration, White is asserting that his convictions are correct and paramount and that those with differing religious beliefs can just live with it.
The proclamation sets a nice tone about "dignity, respect and peace," but it also uses the authority of the city to establish the "Pride Day," and many citizens' beliefs will not allow them to take pride in this celebration.
Why is this tolerated from one side when it would never be tolerated by the other?
If Scripture is treasured as the word of God and moral authority resides in that word, our social conventions dictate that this moral sense is personal, should be kept under wraps and has no business in public. But if moral absolutes are held only in personal thought, if someone recognizes no moral authority higher than his own mind, then that moral perspective is deemed to be nonreligious and is valued in the public arena.
The only difference is in who we trust for our definition of right and wrong. All moral belief is fundamentally a religious question: Whom do you worship?
White's action was an abuse of his authority. I don't need the mayor telling me that my religious faith is all wrong, and I need to get over it and join him in his enlightenment. What I need for him to do is to make sure that when this year's gay pride march is held, the city provides a safe venue for all views to be heard.3
There are some issues that I would like to point out regarding this controversy. While I agree that Mayor White should have not made this proclamation, we must look at the nature of politics and our society and realize that we should not be surprised. In our society, secularism has completely taken over our culture and politics. Also, let’s look at how leaders are elected. It is similar to high school class presidents or prom queens. Elections are about beauty or popularity. Have you seen some of the commercials being run on television lately? How do we know anything about these men and women that we are electing? Do we really make informed decisions when we are voting? And worse is when false promises are made on the campaign trail. When Mayor White was elected, did the voters know anything about him? Too many of us are guilty of just voting for our favorite party when we don’t know what the candidates stand for.
Lastly, too many of us believe that if we just work hard enough or believe enough that things will get better. We look to the “Ozzy and Harriet” era and want to return to it. The reality is that the “good ol’ days” weren’t that great for many people. Two points of reality—our society is not going to return to this era. We are not going to undo all that the technological era has brought us. Our society has been irrevocably transformed morally, socially, and politically. Next is that it would not be biblically correct to say that things will be good again. Scripture tells us, in 2 Timothy 3:1-6a, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control.”
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4:3”
We are in this time. The question is not what can we do to return to a forgone era, but what are we going to do in this new era of godlessness? How are we going to respond? Jesus saw good and bad. He showed us how to respond to the bad in people in the example of the woman caught in adultery. His main issue was with the religious Pharisees and not the sinners. In John 13:34-35 he gives us our orders, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
I have deep respect for those that feel a calling into politics. I pray for our leaders, and believe that they can do good things. However, our society is not going to get better. If that is our expectation, we will eventually become jaded and hopeless. We must consider how we can help each individual. How can we pray for them? How can we encourage them? How can we witness to them?
It is much like the old proverb of the boy and the starfish:
A man was on vacation and decided to go for a walk. He saw a young boy alone on the beach, intently working on something.
The shore was blanketed with starfish that had been washed up by the high tide and were likely going to die before the tide returned. The boy was walking slowly along the shore. Every so often he would pick up a starfish and toss it back into the ocean.
The man, perplexed at the futility of these efforts but also intrigued, walked up to the boy and said, “I have been watching you and was really curious why you are doing this. There are thousands of starfish washed up on the beach here. Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?”
The boy calmly looked up at the man, and then looked down at another starfish lying in the sand. He picked up the starfish, tossed it back into the sea and answered the man with a seriousness that belied his age.
“It made a difference to that one.”4
How are you going to respond to this proclamation? How are you going to respond to a gay pride parade? How are you going to respond to our society? “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
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1 Mike McCormick: Gay Pride Proclamation Changed To 'Keep Peace', May 25, 2010; WYFF News 4 Reporter
2 By Anna Douglas: Spartanburg signs LGBT proclamation; JUNE 3, 2010; www.journalwatchdog.com
3 Michael Smith: White's proclamation shows uneven nature of morality debate, May 26, 2010; Herald-Journal executive editor
4 Mike Caldwell: Many starfish out there need saving; May 30, 2010; The Tribune |
