VP Cheney, Minority Clergy Voice Support for Federal Marriage Amendment

by Bill Fancher and Fred Jackson
March 3, 2004

(AgapePress) - As several public figures cautiously approach the topic of the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, some conservative political and spiritual leaders are putting their opposition to homosexual marriage right out front in the debate.

Vice President Dick Cheney says he is backing President George W. Bush's call for a federal amendment to ban homosexual marriage, even though Cheney has opposed such calls in the past.

During the 2000 campaign and again last month, Cheney said he felt the issue of whether or not to legalize same-sex marriages should be left to the states. However, in an interview with MSNBC, Cheney recently said Bush has taken a "clear position" on the issue, and he supports the president. Last week President Bush remarked in an announcement that only an amendment to the federal Constitution can protect the "sacred" institution of marriage and thwart "activist" judges seeking to redefine it.

Mary Cheney, the vice president's daughter and an aide in Bush's re-election campaign, is openly homosexual. In his MSNBC interview, Cheney declined to discuss his daughter's views on the issue of homosexual marriage or a Federal Marriage Amendment.

Nevertheless, Democrats are taking up the issue and going on the attack. After winning Super Tuesday's Democratic primary elections, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts declared to supporters that Bush should never have asked Congress to pass an amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He says that action was both politically motivated and divisive.

Kerry told the primary audience that President Bush has become "the great divider" and "has no right to misuse the most precious document in our history in an effort to divide this nation and distract us from our goals." The senator added, "We resoundingly reject the politics of fear and distortion."

Religious Leader: Federal Marriage Amendment Reflects Majority Values
While the debate goes on in Washington and the media, with political strategists in both liberal and conservative camps urging caution, many Christian leaders are calling their representatives attention to the fact that most Americans want traditional marriage preserved and protected.

Dr. Richard Land

Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Associated Press that those members of Congress who do not support the Federal Marriage Amendment are simply not listening to the people they claim to represent.

"They need to go back home and visit with their constituency," Land says. "Nearly seven out of ten Americans don't want same-sex marriage and they're becoming more and more convinced that the only way to stop it is the Federal Marriage Amendment. And we will win this issue."

Land says the actions of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has been defying California law by handing out marriage licenses to homosexual couples, is actually building greater consensus among the public in favor of a federal amendment to ban homosexual marriages.

The Southern Baptist leader also believes the amendment would shut Newsom's illegal activity down. "If we had a Federal Marriage Amendment, what he's doing could not take place because he could not hide behind a bogus constitutional question," Land says.

Minority Report: Clergy from Communities of Color Decry Same-Sex Unions
According to Associated Press, minority clergy around the U.S. are also demonstrating their opposition to same-sex marriage and their support for a federal amendment to ban them. In Washington, DC, minority clergy have converged on the capital to voice support for the amendment, and offer testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. And in San Francisco, California, dozens of minority pastors and church members have gathered and staged a protest against homosexual marriage on the steps of City Hall.

African-American minister Rev. Gerald Agee, who pastors a church in Oakland, insists that there is no civil right to homosexual marriage, and that those officials supporting or allowing it have lost the right to lead. A recent poll by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that African Americans oppose homosexual marriage by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Meanwhile, Rev. Paul Cruz, who pastors a Los Angeles church, says the same-sex weddings taking place in San Francisco violate both God's law and California state law, passed by the voters in 2000. "We're not going to stand for it," Cruz says. "We're going to make our voice known."

Conservative Lawmaker Targets Judicial Activists
But many political analysts predict that it could be a long time before Congress takes up the issue of amending the Constitution over this issue. In the interim, Indiana Republican John Hostettler has thrown down the gauntlet to his fellow lawmakers in the House of Representatives with a bill that would help put an end to activists courts and their efforts to legalize homosexual marriage.

In order to prevent the courts from continually trying to redefine the institution of marriage, Hostettler has introduced HR 3313, a bill that would remove all issues having to do with marriage from any court's jurisdiction.

"Simply put," the Congressman explains, "the federal courts don't have jurisdiction over marriage issues. They can't hear them. And if they can't hear cases regarding marriage policy, they can't redefine the sacred institution and establish a national precedent for homosexual marriage."

Hostettler says his bill would leave such issues to be determined by individual states. He believes the framers of the U.S. Constitution knew states could do a better job with an issue such as marriage than a central government would.

Hostettler says he has lots of support for his bill among conservatives in both the House and Senate. Still, the chances of the bill being passed are estimated to be fairly even.