Pro-Marriage Ad Extends Thanks, Encouragement to President Bush
by Jody Brown
March 1, 2004
(AgapePress) - A coalition of pro-family groups tried to catch the attention of President Bush this weekend with full-page ads in some of the highest-circulation newspapers in the country. Their message? Thank you, Mr. President, for being courageous enough to protect marriage by endorsing a federal marriage amendment.
The full-page ads appeared in 26 papers, reaching a potential of 18 million readers. The ad -- a letter signed by more than 80 pro-family groups and evangelical leaders -- was printed in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and others. Signers of the letter included Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Gary Bauer of American Values, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.
The letter cites times in American history when presidents had to make difficult decisions to protect the balance of power in the country, such as when Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the constitutional precedent of the Dred Scott decision. The signatories believe President Bush had a similar difficult decision regarding the federal marriage amendment.
"We think you are making just such a stand in opposing what we view as runaway courts," the letter read. "Thank you, sir, for standing with the people and for doing what is right."
The pro-family leaders pledged their support to the president during the anticipated battle to get a federal marriage amendment enacted.
"[W]e will do everything in our power to inform and educate our constituents about the importance and urgency of this issue, both for the preservation of the family in America as well as the right ordering of our government," they said. "We will speak on behalf of and to our communities encouraging their fullest participation in what must be a great national debate to preserve the sanctity of marriage and representative government."
One of the groups signing the letter was Citizens for Community Values, an Ohio-based pro-family organization. CCV president Phil Burress says one of the objectives of the ad was to offset the national media attention being given to "a small group of activists" who have labeled the president's action as "bigoted" and "discriminatory."
"We wanted our elected representatives and the president to know that 'we the people' are opposed to letting a few activist judges make a mockery both of the most sacred, enduring, and fundamental institution of our society and of our representative form of government, itself," Burress says.
Burress encourages those in the Buckeye State and across the country to contact their elected representatives in Washington and urge them to vote for a federal marriage amendment.
'Wedding' March Continues
Meanwhile, on Friday 21 homosexual couples exchanged wedding vows in New York as the mayor of New Paltz officiated. Twenty-six-year-old Mayor Jason West described the surge of same-sex unions in places like his small village (75 miles north of New York City) and in San Francisco as "the flowering of the largest civil rights movement the country's had in a generation."
And on Monday, the mayor of Ithaca, New York, authorized her city clerk's office to begin taking the same information from same-sex couples that is taken from heterosexual couples who are applying for a marriage license. The city clerk reportedly said the licenses will not be dated or sealed, but that if the state recognizes the licenses, "the clerk's office will call the couple back to complete the process" and issue the license.
By mid-afternoon, five homosexual couples had taken up Mayor Carolyn Peterson on her offer.
