My announcement in church today:

My picnic blanket Pentecost on the Capitol lawn
David Weiss
August 7, 2011

I attended my first OutFront Minnesota Lobby Day in 2004 or 2005. I am not a crowd person. In fact, I go out of my way to avoid them. But in my head, I knew this was an important rally to attend. So I went up to the Capitol that April to have my personal space repeatedly invaded because I knew—in my head—that it was the right thing to do.

At the rally that day something shifted inside me, less for what I heard than for what I saw. Off to the side, on a blanket on the Capitol lawn, I saw a family. They were clearly there because of their hearts. And suddenly I realized—in my heart—that I was there for them, too. They were the Swenson-Seleen family: Nancy and Jan, Anna and Sara. I hardly knew them back then. But I knew we were members of the same church, members of the one Body of Christ. And I knew that I longed to shape a world in which their family might flourish as easily as mine.

Over the next fifteen months in our state, many voices—and many of them using Christian language—will argue in favor of a constitutional amendment. If passed that amendment will try to tell Anna and Sara—and a whole bunch of other kids and parents and couples who are full members of God’s family—that they are always and forever not quite a family here in Minnesota.

I intend to fight this with my head and with my heart. For their sake. For our sake. For Christ’s sake. I hope you’ll join me.

(At St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church we begin our work on Tuesday, August 16 at 7:00 p.m. in Tidemann Hall. We’ll be having a conversation with Matt Entenza, longtime state legislator, about how our faith can impact this vote.)