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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Pastors Prepare Pulpits for 'Marriage Protection Sunday' Pastors Prepare Pulpits for 'Marriage Protection Sunday' Christian and pro-family groups are creating a ''groundswell of support'' for traditional marriage among pastors and conservative churchgoers. Wednesday, May. 24, 2006 Posted: 7:01:31AM EST WASHINGTON – With less than two weeks remaining before the Federal Marriage Amendment hits the Senate floor, Christian and pro-family groups are creating a ''groundswell of support'' for traditional marriage among pastors and conservative churchgoers. The Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has dubbed June 4 “Marriage Protection Sunday,” and is requesting pastors to preach about gay marriage and encouraging Southern Baptists to tell their senators to vote for the amendment. “Supporters of traditional marriage need to bombard their senators’ offices with e-mails and phone calls,” ERLC President Richard Land told Baptist Press, “and preachers across America need to let the pulpit ring forth in clear and no uncertain terms on Marriage Protection Sunday, June 4, and help create a groundswell of support for this amendment. “I can assure you the opponents of traditional marriage are doing their best to let their voices be heard in the corridors of the Senate. It is up to us to let our voices be heard loudly as well,” he said. The 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention is among a host of familiar players in the same-sex marriage debate that has amplified the voice of “values-voters” in Washington. The denomination is working with a powerful pro-marriage amendment coalition that includes groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council to foster support for the Senate resolution through mass-mailing, conference calls, and internet outreaches. The Washington-based Family Research Council has already collected nearly 38,000 names in an online petition calling on U.S. Senators to preserve traditional marriage in America. The group hopes to gather 50,000 names by the week of June 5, when the Senate is slated to take up the measure. Meanwhile, Focus on the Family Action has promoted a postcard campaign to get pastors involved in the effort. James Dobson, chairman of FOFA, joined with the Southern Baptist’s ERLC in sending an Apr. 12 letter to mobilize 43,600-plus Baptist churches around the issue. Since the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in that state in 2004, pro-family leaders rallied for a national constitutional amendment that would protect traditional marriage in other states and overturn the notorious Massachusetts court decision. They warn that without such an amendment, states would be powerless to protect its laws from being overturned by “activist judges.” They also call the issue “the most important” in the effort to protect families and preserve God’s will for mankind. “Very few issues threaten the foundation of our culture as deeply as the same-sex marriage issue,” a statement from the ERLC read. “Help preserve God's design for marriage in the United States by supporting the Marriage Protection Amendment.” Some recommendations for Marriage Protection Sunday include preaching about the issue on June 4 and distributing information on same-sex marriage. Lay Christians are encouraged to email, call, or hand-deliver mail to their senators, telling their representatives to pass the amendment. The Senate Judiciary Committee on May 18 approved the Marriage Protection Amendment in a 10-8 party-line vote. The Senate is slated to discuss the amendment on June 5, and will likely vote on it by June 6 or 7. Ratification of an amendment to the Constitution requires passage by two-thirds of both the Senate and the House, as well as approval by three-fourths of the states. Neither houses of Congress came close to a two-thirds majority when a similar amendment was placed on the floor in 2004. Traditional marriage supporters are hoping that the new Republican-majority Congress will garner enough votes to pass this time around. "We certainly don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have more votes this time than last time,” Duke Barrett, vice president of the ERLC told BP. “The Senate is decidedly more conservative, certainly more Republican, than it was the last time. We believe that if enough senators hear from their constituents, the MPA can be passed. "It’s obvious that a significant majority of Americans throughout the country do not want same-sex marriage," he said. "If that significant majority will communicate their convictions to their senators, the amendment should be passed.” > Pauline J. Chang pauline@christianpost.com
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#2. To: Red Jones (#0)
I don't believe in gay marriage either, but I think these preachers should also be preaching against no fault divorce and living together without getting married and having kids out of wedlock. To be fair, those things are more hurtful to the institution of marriage and society in general than gay marriage.
I wholeheartedly support marriage between any consenting adult. Government has no right to dictate who people love and who they wish to bond with. Heterosexual marriage is a train wreck - has been for decades - with divorce, marginalization through contract marriage, and other problems endemic to it that have reduced it's value and impact as a bond to use as a foundation for relationships and families. These people picking on others in a wedge issue fashion for their own power base building purposes need to worry first about their own problems before they worry about those they perceive in others. I know several couples - mostly women couple as Eugene is a Mecca for lesbians on the West Coast - and if they consider themselves married, I do to. And I am proud to do so.
The state has no business licensing ANYTHING.
It's not just about the state authorizing anything. It's about recognizing and formalizing a situation that inevitably occurs in nature and giving it a framework that is best and most helpful and healthy to society. Most hetero couples will have children. Marriage and attendant family laws give us a cohesive, predictable structure for handling those relationships and the kinds of emotional, legal, and financial problems that arise. Without this kind of formal framework, we are reduced to re-inventing the wheel each time some cohabiting couple breaks up and needs to re-apportion property, assets, and decide how to rear the children. It is totally impractical to have a society in which the governing body does not recognize marriage in some manner - in fact, I don't think it has ever happened. Nor should it. This is one of the legitimate purposes of government. Otherwise, we would all be at each others' throats and in hopeless social disarray within one to two generations.
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