Christian Leaders Say Values Voters' Mandate Still Counts

by Jenni Parker and Allie Martin
November 8, 2004

(AgapePress) - A senior White House political adviser says President Bush will keep pushing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. Meanwhile Christian leaders are hailing the state marriage protection victories while urging the pro-family grassroots to keep up momentum in the push for a Federal Marriage Amendment.

In the wake of George W. Bush's November 2 victory, James Dobson of Focus on the Family Action appeared on ABC's This Week, where he commented on the role Christian conservatives played in the 2004 presidential election. Some political observers underestimated the potential impact of the "values voters," or those for whom moral issues factored heavily in how they cast their ballots. But Dobson believes many opponents recognized Christian conservatives as a threat from the beginning.

The ministry founder notes that Christian conservatives have been the target of vicious and vehement political rhetoric throughout the 2004 campaign. "There's been an awful lot of hate expressed in this election," he said on ABC, "and most of it has been aimed at those who hold to conservative Christian views." Nevertheless, the values voters turned out in force on election day and made their voices heard.

Now Dobson says the Christian conservatives who helped President Bush win a second term have some expectations. On ABC, the pro-family leader remarked, "People of faith and the people that I think put George Bush in power again have some very strong views. It's been referred to as the 'values thing.' Actually, I don't like the word 'values;' that's kind of neutral. It's morality -- that's what it is."

Bush Still Firmly Committed to Protecting Marriage
The Focus on the Family spokesman says these "values voters" are looking to Bush to oppose homosexual marriage and abortion and to appoint conservative federal judges. And when it comes to at least one of these expectations, the Bush administration has recently re-affirmed the president's commitment to the cause.

Senior White House political advisor Karl Rove says Bush will continue to push for amending the U.S. Constitution so as to protect the traditional definition of marriage. "Without the protection of that amendment," Rove asserts, "we are at the mercy of activist federal judges or activist state judges who could, without the involvement of the people, determine as the Massachusetts Supreme Court did that marriage no longer consists of a union between a man and a woman."

The Bush advisor made his comments on Fox News Sunday, where he described the president's position not only as a moral course but a socially practical and politically ideal course. "If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal," he said, "and the ideal is that marriage ought to be and should be the union of a man and a woman."

The White House spokesman also acknowledged the problem of judicial activism, which ignores both the will of the majority of voters and the established practice of civilized society in attempting to defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.

"We cannot allow activist judges to overturn that," Rove said. "We cannot allow activist local elected officials to thumb their nose at 5,000 years of human history and determine that marriage is something else. And the people have a right to be involved."

Utah Pastor Calls for Christian Grassroots Support for FMA
And the people were very much involved at the state level in this election, with the marriage issue appearing on the ballot in 11 states. Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah all had measures dealing with same-sex marriage on their ballots, and in every state, the majority of voters opted to preserve the traditional definition of marriage.

Now, in the wake of the pro-family victory in his state, one Southern Baptist pastor active in the fight to defend marriage is asking fellow clergy to encourage their parishioners to mobilize by contacting their congressmen and urging their support for a Federal Marriage Amendment, or FMA.

Last week Utah overwhelmingly approved a proposed state constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage (66% - 34%). Now Pastor Mike Gray of Southeast Baptist Church in Salt Lake City is working to raise awareness among Christians about the need to keep pushing to amend the federal constitution to protect marriage nationwide. "We're going to have some activist judges that are going to make a decision for our country if we don't make it for ourselves," he warns.

Gray is concerned not only about attempts by pro-homosexual activists to have the courts redefine marriage, but also about the enactment of more and more hate crime legislation in the United States. Some pro-family leaders fear that such laws could potentially be used against clergy and Christian lay leaders when they speak biblically about homosexuality.

Southeast Baptist Church is the largest congregation in the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, but its pastor is working to spread his call for vigilance and action well beyond the walls of his own church. "If we pastors and people don't stand and tell our country or our areas what is the biblical pattern," Gray says, "then I think some activist judges are going to, and then we're going to end up with pastors in jail and Christian people in jail because of hate crime accusations. We have to take a stand. I think we have to set the policy, not the judges."

The Utah minister feels the need for pro-family Christians to make their voices heard about moral issues is as great now as it was before the election, if not greater. Gray is urging fellow church leaders and Christian church members to make sure their lawmakers and other government representatives know where they stand.