As we study our nation’s history, we discover a long and regrettable record of our majority groups seeking to bar our undervalued groups and minority groups from the table of equal participation and leadership. 
Such exclusionary-based thinking regarding Native Americans, African Americans, women, and many religious and immigrant peoples has failed, again and again. By the grace of God (and hopefully sooner than later), such exclusionary-based actions against
our beloved gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender colleagues will end
in failure.
Theologically speaking, the followers of Jesus Christ stand on and are nurtured by our ongoing belief that baptism is every Christian’s ordination. The privilege of equal participation at the table of church leadership is profoundly rooted in our baptism. When we baptize our little ones, they are ordained into the priesthood of all believers and the communion of saints. No one should attempt to block or hinder any Christian from the blessed and historic privileges and responsibilities involved, indeed, inherent in our baptism. So, the church needs to cease its debilitating resistance of baptism’s enfranchisement of the priesthood of all believers and the communion of saints, and simply get on with it.”
Rev. Dr. Dean K. Thompson, recently retired President of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, speaking in support of Amendment 10-A at the March 1, 2011 meeting of the Presbytery of West Virginia.