I'd like to paint a rosier picture . . . Of the 25-vote margin of those who voted for 'B,' we can't afford to lose more than 12. So there's a lot of work to be done. We're beginning to see votes from the South beginning to pick up now. They say the problem is the amendment itself.
Pastors feel constrained.
They deal with difficult and troubling personal situations all the time, even those who would never perform a same-sex union. Byers asked, arguing that there are complicated pastoral problems that the writers of the amendment have overlooked. That's what Richmond, Va., pastor Ben Sparks argued in an opinion piece in The Presbyterian Outlook , an independent weekly magazine for Presbyterians. Ministers are not free to say or do anything they want in worship. . . . They point out that, in Plains and Peaks, the amendment passed by three votes.