The Greensboro News & Record ran an insightful story Sunday about the battle over a proposed gay-marriage-ban amendment to the N.C. Constitution. Reading the story, by state government reporter Mark Binker, one thing became clear: the similarity, even kinship, between the preachers who are pressuring the General Assembly to pass the amendment and the screaming fundamentalists who tried to disrupt the Pride Charlotte Festival Saturday. They’re both part of the I Know God’s Mind Bloc, or what a friend dubs the Archaic Values Coalition. Either way, you’re dealing with the usual dullard fundamentalists' muddle of cherry-picked scripture quotes, bigotry posing as moral superiority, and plain ol’ political nastiness.

As BlueNC put it, it seems that the N.C. Constitution is being rewritten from the pulpit. Rev. Ron Baity, head of Return America, a fundie Christian group from Winston-Salem that has held rallies in Raleigh pushing the amendment, told Binker, “Marriage was ordained by God, not by government. God set it in motion . . .we’re trying to uphold the biblical standard of marriage.” Ahem. A few observations.

1. Is it my own misreading of history, but haven’t marriages been going on since long before Christianity, or even Judaism?

2. Rev. Baity, would that be the same biblical view of marriage in which the wife literally belongs to the husband and can be stoned to death for adultery? If not, why not — it’s in the Bible isn’t it? Don’t say that’s not your interpretation of it — it’s not up to us to interpret, remember? “Inerrant literal truth” and all that kind of thing?

3. Are the marriages of fine Christian politicians, like Sens. David “D.C. Madam’s List” Vitter or Larry “Wide Stance” Craig, extra-godly because of their “family values” rhetoric?

4. How does it feel to have the same views on marriage as the Taliban?

5. Since it’s documented fact that marriages break up in the Bible Belt more frequently than in other parts of the U.S. — and that the lowest divorce rate in the nation is in Massachusetts, which has had legal gay marriages longer than any other — what do those truths say about your claims that Bible-based marriages are superior and that same-sex marriages will "destroy marriage"? Also, you do realize how presumptuous it is to go around saying you know and understand God’s will, don’t you?

And finally, one question I’ve been meaning to ask but keep forgetting:

6. Ever heard of minding your own business?

• The Rev. Ron Baity: Gay marriage ban amendment cheerleader, and personal messenger of God