Federal Marriage Amendment

Federal Marriage Amendment More Important Than Ever

Date: November 20, 2003
From: Jerry Falwell

In an alarming but expected decision on Wednesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that a ban on marriage violates the state constitution and gave the state legislature 180 days to come up with a compromise or a plan to comply with the ruling.

As the enemies of conventional marriage continue to make gains, it is becoming increasingly imperative that Americans who want to preserve our traditional values must get proactive.

These activist judges, realizing that the large majority of Americans will not support marriage, feel a need to instill their version of America on the rest of us. They know that Joe America is not going to support marriage, so they take the only remaining step to accomplish their goal - they enact a court ruling.

"The court is seeking to create a counterfeit," said Jan LaRue of Concerned Women for America. "Even if the legislators ignore the will of the people and institute some type of civil unions, a license can't create a marriage any more than a licensed electrician can produce power by taping two same-sex plugs together."

With militant jurists looking to authorize laws for America, it is more imperative than ever for those who uphold the Judeo-Christian values of our Founding Fathers to stand up and fight.

The Federal Marriage Amendment (H.J.Res. 56) offers us the preeminent way to protect marriage as a sacred bond between one man and one woman. The amendment states:

"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

The bi-partisan cosponsors of the Federal Marriage Amendment are: Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.), David Vitter (R-La.), Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Ralph Hall (D-Texas).

While -rights advocates suggest that American values on marriage are rapidly changing, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that less than one-third of Americans favor marriage.

Furthermore, a Wirthlin Poll earlier found similar results, with a solid 62 percent saying they agree with the statement, "Marriage is the union between a man and a woman." Only 26 percent disagreed with the statement.

Even more important was the fact that overwhelming numbers of Hispanics (63 percent) and African-Americans (62 percent) in the Wirthlin Poll said they support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage from lawsuits challenging traditional marriage.

This is great news, but we cannot sit on our hands and hope for the best. If we don't win this battle, marriage as we know it becomes insignificant.

"It is very important to remember that the entire effort to undermine the legal status of marriage in the courts is premised upon constitutional law," said the folks at the Alliance for Marriage. "For example, activist organizations openly admit their plans to use the Equal Protection and Full Faith and Credit clauses of the United States Constitution to eventually impose same-sex 'marriage' and 'civil unions' on every state in the nation. The only question is whether the constitutional status of marriage will be determined by unelected judges or the American people."

That's the picture in a nutshell.

Hegemonic jurists will have the leeway to enact their valueless vision on America in terms of altering marriage unless the Federal Marriage Amendment becomes the law of the land.

Please call or e-mail your representative and senators today to considerately urge them to support the Federal Marriage Amendment (H.J.Res. 56). An easy way to contact your congressional members is to visit the Campaign for Working Families website ( https://www.cwfpac.com ). Simply click on "Congressional Directory" to find e-mail addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and background information on your elected officials.

By the way, Campaign for Working Families Chairman Gary Bauer said this week that his organization "will work hard to defeat any politician who refuses to defend traditional marriage."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council agreed, saying, "Protecting marriage will be a major issue in the 2004 elections. Every candidate seeking the votes of pro-family Americans must be ready and willing to offer an unwavering defense of not only the word 'marriage,' but also the institution it represents."

I'm with Gary and Tony in this effort; I'm committed to doing whatever I can to ensure that marriage remains the way God intended it. I hope readers will stand with us in this critical campaign to preserve the Judeo-Christian foundations of marriage.

Finally, I urge those who have not signed my Federal Marriage Amendment Petition to do so by visiting the website https://www.onemanonewoman.com . Hundreds of thousands of Americans have already signed this petition that will soon be forwarded to President Bush and members of Congress. This petition is a powerful tool to lobby fence-sitting lawmakers that the majority of Americans want them to preserve traditional marriage. Please sign the petition today: https://www.onemanonewoman.com