Richard Land: Expect Marriage Legislation to Eventually Pass
by Allie Martin
June 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention says amending the U.S. Constitution to protect traditional marriage will take time, but that such an amendment will eventually be approved on Capitol Hill. Last year Dr. Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was recognized by Time Magazine as among "The Twenty-Five Most Influential Evangelicals in America." In addition to his responsibilities with the largest Protestant denomination in the country, Dr. Land is also serving his third term as an appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which reports to the president, secretary of state, and Congress on the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad.
The high-profile Evangelical co-hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk-show and is author of several books, his latest being Imagine! A God-Blessed America (Broadman & Holman, 2005), in which he encourages readers to envision an America where more Christians are radical change agents who reflect Christ, not culture. One of the areas where Land feels believers can effect change is through the ballot box -- and he believes that Christians who vote their values will remove from office U.S. senators who recently voted not to allow the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) to be voted on by the full Senate.
The day before Senate debate began on the MPA, President Bush spoke in favor of the measure at a White House press conference, urging senators to protect marriage from activist judges. He was criticized by some pro-family leaders for limiting and effectively delaying his remarks, and many Christian voters were upset over Bush's relative silence on the issue. Still, Land says the president has stood strong for the biblical definition of families -- more so than any president in recent memory.
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"Has the president done as much as I would wish he has done? No. Has he done more than any other president would have done in my lifetime? Yes, he's done more," notes Land, adding that he believes President Ronald Reagan would have wanted to support the amendment, "but Nancy would have talked him out of it. "You know, I don't want to make the perfect the enemy of the good. At least we have a president who supported the amendment, who said so publicly," the SBC leader points out.
He anticipates that Republican leaders will continue to push for a marriage amendment, which even after leaving Congress for ratification by the states would likely be a lengthy process.
"It normally takes several times before an amendment passes [out of the Senate], and we're moving in the right direction," he says. "We made progress, and we're going to continue to make progress. We have a president who supported the amendment, ... and we had a majority leader [Bill Frist] who was the first person to come out in favor of the amendment and ... who fought really hard for this amendment."
Many of the senators who voted against the MPA earlier this month stated their belief that the issue is one that should be decided at the state level, not by amending the U.S. Constitution. But speaking on the issue last week, Family Research Council Tony Perkins noted that pending lawsuits against states that have passed marriage legislation, if successful, could undermine that argument -- and perhaps force senators to reconsider the measure again this year. (See related article)
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
