Pro-Family Leader Says Same-Sex 'Marriage' Motivating Voters

by Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
September 22, 2004

(AgapePress) - Sunday night in Arkansas, the Family Research Council presented the third in a series of closed-circuit worship services and pro-traditional marriage rallies. FRC president Tony Perkins says this latest pro-family service was a great event and, hopefully, not the last of its kind.

"It was incredible. The response from the people ... was overwhelming, and of course Dr. Dobson, Ken Hutcheson, Ted Haggard, and Dr. Richard Land were very much on message," Perkins says, as was Pastor Ronnie Floyd.

Tony Perkins

That courageous and outspoken pastor was the main reason the FRC took the rally to Arkansas in the first place, the pro-family group's president notes, adding "We wanted to stand up next to him and let people know that, no longer in America, if a pastor stands up and speaks the truth and is attacked, will he stand alone."

The FRC-organized series event was broadcast from a church in Springdale and sent to hundreds of congregations across the United States. But although it was the final scheduled broadcast in the series, Perkins says these pro-traditional marriage rallies and worship services have opened up a whole new way for pro-family forces to connect with other Christians.

"Technology is giving us the ability to reach out in a way that we have not been able to do before," he says, "and I think it's something that's bringing churches together. This is unique -- where you've got anywhere from three [hundred] to seven hundred churches gathering together on a Sunday night for a joint church service across the nation from different denominational backgrounds. It's exciting."

And it is important to make this connection, the FRC spokesman says, especially at the present time, because the fate of traditional marriage is linked with the fate of the upcoming national election. Both inside and outside the Beltway, many are calling the 2004 presidential election a referendum on marriage -- a description with which Perkins agrees.

"There's no doubt of that," Perkins says, "when you've got as many as 13 states that will have this on the ballot this fall. Two have already voted on it, and 11 may have it on the ballot November 2. So people going to the polls are being motivated by this issue."

And the pro-family leader does not believe supporters of the biblical view of marriage will vote for a candidate who backs same-sex marriage. "I think candidates who stand on the side of marriage are going to benefit from it," he says. "Those that don't are going to pay the consequences."

Grassroots Push for the FMA
Whether American voters will bear out Perkins' predictions about the national elections remains to be seen five weeks from now. In the meantime, the battle over homosexual marriage, on both the federal and the statewide fronts, is being fought out all over the country. Pro-family groups in individual states are continuing to urge grassroots support for a Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) and for candidates who are willing to defend traditional marriage

In Maryland, the pro-family Christian Action Network (CAN) plans to deliver 50,000 petitions in support of the proposed FMA to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) on September 23 at 2:00 pm. Bartlett, the representative from Maryland's 6th District, is expected to be joined by Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado as he receives the petitions supporting her proposed constitutional amendment (H.J. Res. 56) defending traditional marriage, which is scheduled to be voted on next week in the House.

CAN has been collecting signatures in support of the amendment since it was originally introduced by Congressman Ronnie Shows in 2001, and last May the group presented 30,000 petitions to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"America is at a moral and a legal crossroads on marriage," says Martin Mawyer, president of CAN, who will deliver the petitions on Thursday in an effort to build congressional support in favor of the amendment. He contends that common sense dictates that marriage is the union between a man and a woman and the state's only legitimate purpose in licensing marriages is to protect the legal interests of children produced in such a union.

"Any other interpretation," Mawyer says, "would mean the state is in the business of licensing 'love.' And it is ridiculous to think the state should be in the business of licensing the 'love' between a man and a man or a woman and a woman."

The pro-family lobbyist believes it is imperative that Congress vote in favor of the FMA. He says the state only has a right to issue marriage licenses because it has a "compelling interest" to protect children and contends that "there is no such 'compelling interest' in the licensing of homosexual couples."

The Wars Within the States
In other areas, similar pro-family grassroots and legislative efforts are under way, seeking to pave the way for voters to weigh in on whether to add marriage protection amendments to their state constitutions. Many of these efforts are meeting with resistance, however, as homosexual activists use lobbying and litigation to block the path for such state referendums.

Yesterday, in Georgia, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys filed a motion on behalf of state lawmakers seeking to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit aimed at putting a stop to a November 2 vote on a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage. Two-thirds of the state legislature has already approved the amendment, and now the pro-family lawmakers are hoping to oppose attempts by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal Defense Fund, and others who want to keep Georgia voters from having a say in the matter.

"The people pushing for same-sex marriage are desperate to evade democracy," observes ADF attorney Mike Johnson. He says opponents of the Georgia marriage protection amendment filed suit last week in Fulton County Superior Court, hoping to stop the measure from going to the ballot because they know "same-sex marriage loses whenever a state puts it before the voters."

Johnson says ADF and its allies feel duty-bound to stand with Georgia's attorney general in a "vigorous defense of this important legislation and to help safeguard the people's right to decide the issue." The lawyer says the alliance trusts that the court will allow the ADF and the pro-family legislators to participate as necessary parties in the case.