Rev. Mark Harris, senior minister at Charlotte’s First Baptist Church and a leader of last year’s successful Amendment One anti-gay-marriage campaign, is telling his supporters today that he’s running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. According to the Charlotte Observer, Harris, who is also president of the Baptist State Convention, will make an official announcement of his candidacy on October 2. Harris will run against N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis and Dr. Greg Brannon, with the winner facing U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan in November 2014.
Harris was famously photographed cupping his hand to his mouth and whooping it up at an election night victory party for the Amendment One campaign. At the time I wrote, “The image of a supposed religious leader joyfully rah-rahing that the state now blatantly denies equal rights to an entire segment of the population was, well, I hardly know where to start – shocking, embarrassing, ludicrous, nauseating. Take your pick, they all apply.” And they still apply.
Harris, by most accounts, is a relatively affable guy, albeit full of himself, but the idea of the leader of the state’s Baptists representing North Carolina in Washington makes me pretty nervous, not to say horrified.
Knowing that he was a force behind the marriage discrimination amendment, of course, makes his candidacy even more unpalatable to progressive North Carolinians. Harris is no doubt counting on the kind, religious folks who showed up in droves to stick it to the queers at the ballot box in 2012 – a result that showed the Protestant right’s talent for getting its supporters to the polls. It’s hard to beat a well-oiled religious prejudice machine.
In view of the current far-right General Assembly’s plummeting poll numbers, however – a drop that came after North Carolinians got a look at the kinds of laws the GOP’s wingnuts rammed through the legislature – Harris should expect plenty of pushback if he wins the nomination. Voters should not forget that Harris aligned himself with one of the most openly bigoted, irrational and repugnant political campaigns in the state’s history, which is really saying something in Jesse Helms’ old stomping grounds. The Amendment One campaign spectacle, in which people who claim allegiance to Biblical wisdom nearly wet themselves over the chance to smack around a minority group they hate for no good reason, is something Harris needs to be reminded of, and asked about, if he ends up running against Hagan. Harris’ role in leading such a hateful ballot initiative – and what it foreshadows for North Carolina in case he joins the U.S. Senate – should be topic No. 1 for members of the press that will cover his efforts between now and the election.
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This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2013.
Brannon is the best candidate in this race.
John, Wow…first of all, Christians do not “smack around a minority group they hate for no good reason”. It’s not about hate at all, and your ignorance and rant is more full of hate and contempt than a principled person standing up for what they believe: that “marriage” is defined as a relationship with one man and one woman. Where’s the hate in that? Seems like rather than debate ideas, you resort to calling people names. Glad your not running for office!
This writer (if you will) is certainly unable to deliver content without their overshadowing opinion gleaming in the background.
Thanks so much for your comments, Tom and James. James, you may be surprised to know that blogs by political columnists very often include the writer’s opinion — but it’s true! i do regret, then, if my opinion in the blog post above merely remained “in the background.” Tom, what you call standing up for traditional marriage is what many others see as deliberate, willful discrimination against a minority that you want to keep from having the same rights as you. As for the idea of traditional marriage, there is simply no such thing in the long history of humanity, and that includes the variety of types of marriage decreed in the Bible. See: http://clclt.com/charlotte/which-biblical-… I would like to congratulate you, however, on not having perceived any hatred for gays and lesbians in the Amendment One campaign – that’s quite an accomplishment considering some of the hateful rhetoric put out by http://voteformarriagenc.com/, which parroted the views of its parent organization, the National Organization for Marriage. See: http://clclt.com/charlotte/the-extremist-b…
It scares me when anyone of any religion wants to run for office so that they can push their beliefs on everyone. We are supposed to have separation of church and state.. but that is not what has been happening lately. Anyone who believes that marriage can ONLY be between a man and a woman.. is welcome to those beliefs, however, not everyone in the state of NC believes the same thing.. and should not have to live under the guidelines of a religion that they do not belong to. I hope this guy loses.. it will be another terrible step backward for NC if he wins. He needs to keep HIS religion in HIS church.
Mark Harris is the best candidate. So anyone who believes homosexuality is wrong is anti-gay? Interesting. I believe that but still love on them. So I’m anti-gay? Who writes these articles. Seriously wow.
Thanks for the comment, James11. I believe the answer to your question — So anyone who believes homosexuality is wrong is anti-gay? — would be “Yes, of course. That’s a good working definition of anti-gay, in fact.” Who asks such a question? Seriously wow.