Dear Caldwell,
On Sunday, we will get to know a character from the Gospel of John named Caiphas, who was all about political expediency – the imperfect and often tragic art of compromise just for the sake of doing something, all in a desperate attempt to hold on to power.
But we don’t have to wait until then to witness the ugly and unsavory business that politics requires. Just read the paper today or watch the news.
I fully understand the complexity of governing and of making public policy in a deeply divided state. But yesterday’s (March 30) sheepish compromise in the N.C. General Assembly that put in place replacement legislation for HB2 is a sad statement about the ongoing costs of a “supermajority” state legislature that leans too far one way. In this case, that leaning is to the political right, leaving lasting damage to our state in all sorts of directions. For any who look closely, the claim that HB2 has been repealed doesn’t really hold much water.
The “replacement legislation” is a beginning on the work to undo the lasting damage of North Carolina’s most infamous and hurtful legislation in decades. But it means there is still no statewide nondiscrimination policy that protects the LGBTQ community. In addition, cities are not allowed to adopt their own nondiscrimination policies for four years. That’s just bad business. And transgender men and women are not allowed to use the restrooms in which they are most comfortable, sending a message that they are second-class citizens in North Carolina at best. Finally, the new legislaiton leaves in place controls over whether local governments can put in place a more livable wage than the minimum set in Raleigh. So, the values of one political perspective still hang over our state and how it is seen by the world.
But that’s how it goes with leadership that is purely politically expedient, as we will talk about Sunday – leadership that, in Christ’s day, got Jesus killed. But it still didn’t stop the Kingdom of God from breaking through.
In Christ,
John