In April 2012 a political campaign stop brought a candidate to a restaurant in Lebanon, Virginia, where a retired United Mine Workers miner confronted him about President Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage. The miner initially called homosexuality an abomination, citing the Bible. The candidate responded by emphasizing love and compassion from the Bible rather than condemnation. The miner reconsidered, moving from rejection to acceptance. The shift resulted from careful listening, absence of scolding, and deep personal trust rooted in shared labor struggles, advocacy on black-lung rules, and efforts to create jobs in the community.
"It's an abomination, the Bible says so. Marriage is between a man and woman. Anything else is unnatural, it's wrong!" He was, as we say in these parts, convicted in his words. "I hear you," I replied. "I know that the idea seems a little odd to some folks. But the main thing I get from the Bible is that we're supposed to love one another, especially people who are different from us, hard for us to love." That's all I said. He chewed on that for a moment and then replied, "I guess you're right." And then, after a bit more pondering, "Well, I suppose they're just born that way anyway."
Why? In part because I listened to him and didn't try to scold him. But more importantly, because he trusted me. He trusted me because he knew I'd been on the picket lines with the miners during their 1989-90 Pittston Coal strike, that I'd fought to improve black-lung rules for miners, and worked to create new jobs in his community.
Collection
[
|
...
]