'Tolerance' Advocates Post Fla. Marriage Amendment Supporters' Names Online
by Mary Rettig
June 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The chairman of a group that is gathering signatures to put a marriage amendment on Florida's ballot is accusing a pro-homosexual church of engaging in scare tactics to keep people from signing the petition in support of protecting traditional marriage.
The organization known as "Florida4Marriage.org" has been working hard to gather enough signatures to put the marriage amendment on a state ballot in 2008. Meanwhile, a Jacksonville congregation, Christ Church of Peace, has launched a website of its own, on which it is posting the names of the ballot signers in order to, as the site claims, encourage an "open conversation."
However, Florida4Marriage.org president John Stemberger says stimulating conversation is not Christ Church's real goal. He describes the launch of the church's website as a "sad act" from a so-called tolerance group.
"Imagine what would happen if a conservative, extreme group of Christians posted online the home address of every gay-identified activist in Florida," Stemberger posits. "I mean, that would be decried as a witch hunt and an un-Christian, hateful attempt to mark gays in the same way that we mark pedophiles here in Florida by putting their name and address on a website."
The Florida4Marriage.org spokesman, who also serves as general counsel for the pro-family group, says what Christ Church of Peace is doing is not technically illegal because the marriage amendment petitions are public. Still, he contends, the church's methods seem quite unethical and their motives, fairly transparent.
"Upwards of 70 to 80 percent believe that marriage is between one man and one woman," Stemberger asserts. "So what you're seeing is really an attempt to intimidate people, which is typical of those that oppose us on same-sex marriage," he says. "Their agenda, in part, has to do with trying to just silence people that disagree with you."
Such scare tactics, the pro-family activist notes, may be legal but are certainly ethically questionable as well. He says Florida4Marriage.org has let signers of the petitions know about their names being published online.
A number of people have been angered by this news, Stemberger observes. However, he says some petition signers have seen the posting of their names as a source of pride and say they are glad to let others know they support traditional marriage.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
