Speakers, Crowd at WDC Rally Serious About Protecting Marriage

by Bill Fancher, Jody Brown, and Chad Groening
October 19, 2004

(AgapePress) - One of the key organizers of last weekend's "Mayday for Marriage" rally in America's capital believes the event will have an impact on the nation's lawmakers.

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, likes the evaluations of the huge rally for traditional marriage that was held in Washington, DC, on Friday. Tens of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall to hear pro-family speakers such as Dr. James Dobson, Prison Fellowship's Charles Colson, Gary Bauer of American Values, and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"We were very encouraged by the turnout, as people from all across the country came here to Washington to take a stand for marriage," Perkins says, whose organization was a major sponsor of the three-hour event. "We had people in buses, in cars [coming from] as far away as San Francisco, California, who made the drive here."

Those who came for the rally left encouraged by the speakers to stand for the biblical ideal of marriage -- one man, one woman -- and to fight for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage as such. Charles Colson told the crowd to persevere, because the battle over such an amendment may be a long one.

"This is not going to be a one-year or two-year or three-year fight," Colson said. "It's going to be fought until we prevail. Don't quit, don't get discouraged, don't despair."

The founder of Prison Fellowship also said the fight for traditional marriage will not be determined on what happens on Election Day next month. "It doesn't turn on one vote," he said. "It's got to be a gradual process of educating the American people."

Gary Bauer took issue with those who accuse marriage traditionalists of bigotry, saying it is not bigotry to know that marriage is between a man and a woman. "It is not discrimination to know that our children need mothers and fathers," the former presidential candidate stated. "And it is not intolerance to know that the love between you and your spouse is superior in every way to sex between two men."

And James Dobson acknowledged that while those in the homosexual community need to be shown Christian love, the battle for what is right also demands Christians to stand firm. "As Christians, it is our obligation to put our arms around [the homosexual community] and pull them into the church. You cannot win people to Jesus Christ if you're being disrespectful to them," the Focus on the Family founder said.

"But on the other hand," he said, "there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong -- and we must defend the value system in which we believe."

FRC's Perkins says the rally could not have been any better, even though those attending had to sit in an intermittent, chilly rain. Perkins believes the showing will help lawmakers see how serious people are about protecting marriage.

A Serious Senator?
The Republican challenger for the U.S. Senate from Arkansas is wondering if his opponent is serious about protecting marriage. Jim Holt contends that if incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln was, she would support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

On her official campaign website, Senator Lincoln says she does not support amending the U.S. Constitution on the marriage issue because she believes laws on the books are sufficient, and because marriage is a question that should be addressed by the states. But Holt says Lincoln is ignoring the desires of many of her constituents. He says even many Democrats have told him Lincoln will not listen to them about their desire for an amendment.

"She just totally ignored [their requests]," Hold says. "And this shouldn't even be about just listening to the people. It's about what's right and wrong." It is a "no-brainer," he says. "Marriage between a man and a woman? Now she's coming out saying it's a states rights issue. Why should the states have a right to decide something that nature itself and God have already decided?"

According to Holt, Senator Lincoln -- along with almost a dozen other Capitol Hill Democrats, among them Senator Mark Holt of Arkansas -- refused to meet recently with pro-family icon James Dobson, a staunch support for a federal marriage amendment. Holt says Dobson was "totally shut out," marking what he says was the first time ever that Dobson could not get an appointment with lawmakers.