Hoping to
generate the same kind of publicity and change enjoyed by
the Know Thy Neighbor campaign in Massachusetts, which
published on a Web site the names of everyone who
signed a petition for a proposed same-sex marriage
ban, a church in Florida is launching Know Thy Neighbor
Florida on Monday.
"When
KnowThyNeighbor.org was launched in Massachusetts last year,
it resulted in numerous reports of alleged
fraud," said John Schumpert, a founding member
of Christ Church of Peace, a nondenominational
congregation in Jacksonville, which is launching the Florida
campaign. "While we are not saying that is the
case here in Florida, we do believe the only real way
to check for possible fraud is to give all Floridians
easy and meaningful access to view this public
information."
By a February 1
deadline, the antigay group Florida4Marriage.org turned
in only 455,363 of the required 611,009 signatures needed to
put the amendment before voters in November. Now the
group is vowing to get the amendment on the 2008
Florida ballot.
Organizers of
Know Thy Neighbor Florida hope that those who find familiar
names on the lists of petition signers on the
church's Web site will then take the
opportunity to initiate an open and meaningful conversation
with that person about how this discriminatory
amendment would affect their life and, in many cases,
the lives of their children. "I was excited from
the first moment that the idea was presented to me for our
church to sponsor Know Thy Neighbor Florida,"
said the Reverend Gary DeBusk, pastor of Christ Church
of Peace. "A portion of our church's vision
statement reads, 'We will be...a tool for
social change.' And what better way is there to
advocate for change than to support equal rights for all
people."
Unlike the Know
Thy Neighbor campaign in Massachusetts, where signatures
for a 2008 ballot initiative were placed on an independent
Web site, the use of a church site in Florida offers
an opportunity to show people that not all churches
are antigay. "As the February 1 deadline for signed
petitions was approaching [in Florida], Christ Church of
Peace received daily e-mails, faxes, and phone calls
urging us to gather signatures at worship services and
church functions," DeBusk said. "Now, of
course, those who contacted us did not know that
Christ Church of Peace is primarily made up of the
very people that they are discriminating against. All
that they knew was that we were on a list of
churches."
Unfortunately,
DeBusk continued, "a large percentage of their base
is from churches. I find it sad that churches, in the
name of God and Jesus the Christ, will promote
discrimination and marginalization of people and
through peer pressure garner the signatures of their
congregants. But, of course, it was also many of these
same churches that opposed black civil rights."
Names published
by Know Thy Neighbor Florida can be viewed at www.christchurchofpeace.org.
(The Advocate)
