Kansans Cast Ballots Today to Define Marriage in Jayhawk State
by Allie Martin and Bill Fancher
April 5, 2005
(AgapePress) - Voters in Kansas head to the polls today (April 5) to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. If passed, the proposed measure would define marriage as being only between a man and a woman and would prohibit the state from recognizing civil unions and domestic partnerships.
Senator Sam Brownback | |
Kansas is the latest state in the nation to host a showdown between those who want to defend traditional marriage and those who want to redefine it to include same-sex unions. Senator Sam Brownback (R - Kansas) is among those who have been fighting hard for the traditional view, and he is hopeful that homosexual marriage will be rejected in his constituency as it has been in 17 other states so far."Kansas marriage will be defined by the people or the courts," Brownback says. "We're seeing that taking place across the country, and I would urge the people of Kansas to define marriage as between a man and a woman."
The pro-family group Concerned Women for America offered wholehearted support for the Kansans on the eve of their visit to the polls, with Robert Knight of CWA's Culture and Family Institute stating that no court or legislature should be allowed to "destroy marriage by radically redefining it to suit homosexual activists."
Judy Smith, state director of the 5,540-member CWA of Kansas, pointed out that the Kansas legislature actually denied the citizens the chance to vote on the state marriage amendment last year. Now, she says, she and other traditional marriage proponents are "grateful that the flood of calls pouring into the state Capitol, our lobbying efforts, and our public testimony have paid off in their decision to put the amendment back on the ballot."
CWA of Kansas has been instrumental in mobilizing people at the grassroots level to contact their state legislators and urge them to support the proposed marriage amendment. Kansans are expected to approve the measure, making their state the 18th to protect marriage in its state constitution.
Kansas Marriage Vote May Have Nationwide Impact
Jerry Johnston, pastor of First Family Church in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, feels this amendment is badly needed -- and not only for the people of Kansas. "We need to think about states like Idaho and Iowa and a number of other states across the country that are attempting to get a marriage amendment passed in their state," he says.
"By a high percentage voter turnout," Johnston explains, the citizens are not only expressing their will about how marriage should be defined in Kansas, but "we're also sending a message. And I guarantee the President of the United States will see it, and it will fuel a federal marriage amendment."
First Family Church's pastor contends that the passage of the amendment to the Constitution of the State of Kansas is vital for the future of the state. He believes proponents of same-sex marriage are attempting to characterize the issue as a civil rights battle, but he maintains that the issue here is not discrimination.
And in fact, Johnston believes homosexual activists are not out to win the right to marry so much as they are out to advance an entire program of social and political change. "What they're doing," he says, is "they're hijacking the marriage amendment to advance their agenda. And if homosexual marriage becomes law in this country, you're going to see an America you never dreamed of, one that no Kansan that is morally oriented wants."
Even if the Kansas marriage amendment passes by a landslide, as Johnston hopes it will, he doubts it will be enough to stop same-sex marriage advocates from trying to redefine marriage through court action. The only sure way to protect traditional marriage from activist judges and the homosexual agenda, the pastor asserts, is to pass a federal marriage amendment.
Support for traditional marriage seems to be on the rise nationwide; recent Wirthlin Group polling statistics indicate that a majority of Americans support a federal constitutional amendment. And according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released on Friday, 68 percent of those surveyed oppose legalizing same-sex marriage.
The poll also found rising opposition to civil unions that would give homosexual couples some of the rights of married heterosexuals. Respondents were against civil unions 57 percent to 40 percent -- the most opposition indicated since the question was first asked in 2000.
Allie Martin and Bill Fancher, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
