Pro-Family Leaders Highlight Ongoing Trend of Support for Marriage Protection

by Ed Thomas and Jenni Parker
April 7, 2005

(AgapePress) - American Family Association founder and chairman Don Wildmon says the overwhelming majority vote by Kansas residents, who on Tuesday approved a state marriage amendment, was no surprise. He believes this latest public ballot affirming traditional marriage underscores the reason why opponents across the U.S. primarily target the courts to get their desired results.

A 70 percent majority turned out to Tuesday and made Kansas the 18th state in the nation to add a marriage amendment to its constitution, thus protecting the time-honored institution from being redefined and limiting its validity to the union of a man and a woman. According to Wildmon, the likelihood of that outcome whenever such a vote is cast and poll evidence showing that mainstream America favors traditional marriage are among the reasons why liberals fear leaving this issue to the people.

Dr. Don Wildmon

The AFA spokesman says pro-family voters obviously felt it was necessary to enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in the Constitution of the State of Kansas "so that some state judge couldn't just throw the thing out." At the same time, he adds, the vote to approve an amendment that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions "also served to show that people are overwhelmingly against this kind of thing."

Still, Wildmon says the proponents of homosexual marriage "are intent on cramming it down the throats of Americans using activist, liberal federal judges." These judicial activists, he contends, are unlikely to leave existing laws prohibiting same-sex marriage and marriage-like unions alone, and homosexual activists are counting on that.

Nationwide, the People Have Spoken
The chairman's son, AFA president Tim Wildmon, says their pro-family organization applauds the Kansas legislators "for giving the people an opportunity to speak on the issue of marriage; and we applaud the Kansas voters, including our AFA Kansas supporters for making a bold, resounding statement on the sanctity of marriage." Noting that citizens of Alabama, South Dakota, and Tennessee will be voting on marriage amendments to their own state constitutions next year, he says he believes those and other states will follow suit in the growing support for a legalized ban against same-sex marriage.

The Mississippi-based pro-family group's president says the U.S. Congress "needs to pay attention to the tremendous efforts and support people are pouring into protecting marriage." A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released last Friday shows public support for traditional marriage is increasing. The recent poll found 68 percent of respondents opposed legalized same-sex marriage -- an increase from a similar Gallup poll last year that reported 55 percent opposed legalized same-sex marriage.

Tim Wildmon contends that this trend of overwhelming majority votes in favor of state marriage amendments mandates a response from U.S. lawmakers. "Congress holds a responsibility to protect the people's wishes with a federal marriage amendment -- especially since activist judges continue to overrule and look down their lofty noses at the democratic process," he says.

Some pro-family leaders are suggesting that citizens turned out in droves to support the Kansas Marriage Amendment, in part, to make a statement to the liberal media about how the public truly feels about same-sex marriage. Many feel Tuesday's vote provided a measure of just how out of touch the media elite is with the people.

Tony Perkins

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins comments, "The beat of the American heartland is clearly for marriage as it has always been defined -- between a man and a woman." He notes that Kansans' record provides "an unbroken string of victories" on this issue, and "every time the people are given the opportunity to speak, they say 'I do' to traditional marriage."

And they are not alone, Perkins asserts. "We stand with the people of Kansas in upholding traditional marriage." The Family Research Council has been nationally recognized as a leader in the fight to defend marriage, and the head of the organization says it will continue to champion marriage as "the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society."

Bauer Urges Pro-Family Resistance to Intimidation
Meanwhile, Gary Bauer of Campaign for Working Families is calling attention to the notable discrepancy between the polling forecasts and the actual results, not only in the Kansas vote, but in other states where the people have been given the opportunity to weigh in on banning same-sex marriage.

Gary Bauer

In the Kansas referendum, Bauer points out, "Earlier polls had predicted a significantly closer contest than the eventual 40-point spread after the ballots were counted. I'm sure some of that can be blamed on the 'margin-of-error' inherent in polling, but the 'under-polling' of support for traditional marriage has been consistent now in state after state where the issue has been put on the ballot."

The CWF spokesman says this leads him to wonder how much of this "under-polling" discrepancy may be due to "the fact that the radical homosexual rights movement and its allies have intimidated more and more Americans into silence on something as basic as the definition of marriage."

"It is not 'intolerant' to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," Bauer asserts; and nor, he says, is there anything wrong with believing that children deserve a mother and a father. "My friends," he urges, "if we are to going to win this debate, we cannot allow the other side to browbeat us into the closet."

Bauer emphasizes the fact that traditional marriage supporters have yet to lose a public vote on the issue. Therefore, with the definition of marriage and the welfare of children at stake, he insists that pro-family individuals must never be "lukewarm" in defense of the truth.