WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a recent press conference on Capitol
Hill, a bipartisan group of religious and political leaders publically opposed
the President’s recent announcement to support same-sex marriage.
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| Family Research Council President Tony Perkins Opposes President Obama's Support of Same-Sex Marriage |
Senior Pastor at Hope Christian Church and Chairman of High
Impact Leadership Coalition Harry Jackson said this is an issue that affects
Christians across America.
“We are asking for a vote vertical movement,” Jackson said, “That
we begin to vote our biblically-based values, that we lift up the values of the
Christian faith and that we vote according to that, not just Democrat and
Republican.”
Jackson, along with nine other major leaders, presented a
letter to be sent to the president in response to his recent comments.
“We believe that biblical marriage should be maintained and
protected. So, we’re here to make a declaration that we are for biblical
marriage,” Jackson said, “We have a letter that we are sending to President
Obama. We want to know whether he is going to use the bully pulpit of the
presidential office to absolutely erase the image of biblical marriage from the
face of the earth. Voters need to know whether they have a friend or, in a
sense, an enemy to an institution that God has ordained. Some of us have taken
his statements as a declaration of political war against the institution of
marriage.”
Jackson said Obama’s support for same-sex marriage will
likely have political consequences in the upcoming election.
“We don’t really know what the intent of the president is,
except that we know that it is not just an isolated incident, some further
action will follow,” Jackson said.
Pastor and Chairman of Renewing American Leadership Jim
Garlow called the president’s statement a “redefinition of marriage.”
“Which one is unimportant, father or mother? By his
redefinition, one will have to go,” Garlow said, “Is your wife so unimportant,
sir, that she can be replaced by simply any other male, or is there value in
having one man and one woman, a father and a mother?”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the
issue of same-sex marriage is moral, not only political.
“We (Christians) can no longer stay in the shadows. We are
no longer going to allow politicians to take issues and make them political and
tell us to keep our hands off,” Perkins said, “These are first and foremost
moral issues.”
Perkins also said the President’s “redefinition of marriage”
will affect the education of future generations.
“This issue is not just about whether or not two people have
an affinity for one another. No law restricts anyone from living together or
entering into a contractual relationship for property or other matters,” Perkins
said, “But that’s not what this is really about. This is about what our
children are going to be taught in elementary school. It is about stepping in
between a parent and a child and imposing a new morality, or absence there of,
among our children. If we think this will have no ramifications for children in
the future, we are foolish.”
The group also announced their support for the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is
planning to repeal. Perkins said DOMA helps protect the definition of
traditional marriage.
“DOMA not only defines marriage for purposes of federal law,
but DOMA is also the thin line of protection for those 30 states that have
enshrined the definition of marriage in their constitution and the other dozen
states that have it in their statutes,” Perkins said, “Without DOMA,
Massachusetts, Iowa, could impose their definition by a rogue judge on that
other state. DOMA is essential for the state that exercises the right to define
marriage, or preserve that definition.”
This campaign for traditional marriage will continue in the
months leading up to the election through faith-based voting initiatives.
“On June 1st, we are beginning a ‘Righteousness
and Justice Fast.’ Forty days, fasting, we’re calling for churches all around
America to fast for the moral healing of our nation,” Jackson said, “We are
asking for 100,000 plus churches to preach a message on Father’s Day that
focuses on marriage and that a declaration affirming biblical marriage to be read.”
For more information about this issue, visit the Family
Research Council Website at www.frc.org
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