As a pastor, community leader and advocate of justice and respect, I have been asked in recent weeks to be a public supporter of Amendment 2.
I am officially going on record to state that I will not support this amendment. I do not believe the state government has any business attempting to dictate what people can do in their private lives. As a minister, I do not need the state of Florida to condemn the homosexual lifestyle because the Bible I read and preach from is already quite clear on this.
I do not condone such lifestyles, but I will not discriminate against those who practice this lifestyle just because I do not. If a gay person has a partner on life support in a local hospital, that person has as much right to visit that person as I would if it were my wife who lay dying.
The United Methodist Church is quite clear on not condoning homosexual lifestyles but notes the worthiness in God's eyes of all of his people. I will not support the amendment or be told what to preach concerning it.
This amendment has the capacity of promoting discrimination and is a stark example of too much government interference in the private lives of citizens. I do not intend to use my church pulpit to spread discrimination, but I will just stay with what the Bible says about homosexual lifestyles only as it relates to God's word for our lives. I will not use God's word for political purposes for the sake of something that the government has no business being involved in.
