Pro-Family Advocates Hope Bush Will State Support for Traditional Unions
by Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
January 20, 2004
(AgapePress) - When President Bush delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, pro-family groups will be listening closely for his comments on marriage.
Disappointed that Bush has not previously been forthcoming about his feelings regarding efforts to add a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage, pro-family activists are hoping the president will offer his support. Genevieve Wood of the Family Research Council is praying that will happen soon.
"We're looking for something in the State of the Union that articulates the administration's position on the Federal Marriage Amendment. We have no guarantee that it will be in there, but we hope that the president lays out his thoughts there that night," Wood says.
While Wood and other pro-family advocates feel the president's announced effort to spend $1.5 billion to promote healthy marriages is a great first step, many supporters of the biblical view of marriage are worried Bush will use the promotion as a way to appease them while avoiding the same-sex marriage issue. This group insists that protecting marriage is crucial, and they are hoping for a clear message from Bush.
"The president's move here on the Healthy Marriages Initiative is a good one," Wood says, "but come the State of the Union, it's going to be time for him to really put out a strong, articulate voice on where his administration stands as far as putting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution."
Vice President Dick Cheney was recently asked to remark on the Federal Marriage Amendment currently before Congress. Cheney stated that the views he shared on the subject of homosexual unions during the 2000 campaign had not changed, but that the president will be the one to make the decision about whether the administration will support the amendment. Cheney says he will support Bush's policy, whatever that might be. However, many proponents of the amendment feel that therein lies the problem -- Bush's policy has been expressed only in vague terms.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is urging those who support the biblical view of marriage to contact President Bush and let him know their feelings. Perkins notes that, even though the president has little to do legislatively with constitutional amendments, he has a powerful pulpit he can use to encourage Congress and the states to pass a strong amendment protecting traditional marriage.
"In the State of the Union address, President Bush should declare his active support for a constitutional amendment to define marriage in the United States as the union of one man and one woman," Perkins says.
And other marriage protection advocates are saying that the nation's president is not the only political figure who stands to gain from taking a clear stand in defense of marriage. According to an Associated Press report, Alliance for Marriage president Matt Daniels says there are several reasons why politically-astute Democrats, such as those now seeking their party's presidential nomination, would be wise to back the Federal Marriage Amendment.
According to Daniels, support for the proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and ban homosexual marriages is strongest among core Democratic constituencies such as African Americans and Hispanics. The Alliance's president says most Americans believe homosexuals should be able to live as they choose, but should not be allowed to use the courts to redefine marriage.
