Defining the Family
The U.S. Supreme Court created a Constitutional “right” to same-sex sodomy in the landmark case known as Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. That same year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court took the unprecedented step of requiring its legislature to create so-called “gay marriages,” thereby triggering fears that the full faith and credit clause in the U.S. Constitution would be used to require all states to recognize homosexual “unions” from Massachusetts. Although the state legislature failed to change the definition of marriage, then governor Mitt Romney signed an executive order paving the way for homosexual “marriage” for the first time in American history.
Since that time, Family Policy Network has been working to retain the Biblical definition of marriage in a variety of ways, including:
- Working to remind citizens that the institution of marriage was established and defined by God
- Promoting the need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to preserve marriage universally in western civilization
- Opposing efforts to water down a federal definition of marriage that would permit government recognition of other “domestic relationships”
- Endorsing campaigns to amend state constitutions to protect the Biblical definition of one-man, one-woman marriage
- Opposing compromise language for state marriage amendments that would only define the term “marriage,” thereby keeping the door open for legal recognition of immoral relationships, albeit by other names.
TAKE ACTION:
- If your state legislature is considering proposals to amend its constitution to protect marriage, send your state legislators a link to FPN’s position paper on this topic (http://familypolicy.net/resources/papers/state-marriage-amendments)
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- Lobby your legislators to sponsor such an amendment (click here for guidance on content)
- Contribute to FPN to help with this and other projects designed to inform Christians and confront the culture on the important moral issues of the day.
“And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6).
State marriage amendments that merely define the term “marriage” without banning counterfeits should be opposed. Once weak language is defeated, comprehensive language can be proposed and the foundational institution of the family will be promoted and protected.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34). Make a difference by staying informed and speaking out against conservative compromises in the halls of government.
RELATED INFORMATION:
The stabilizing impact of traditional marriage
To understand why gay “marriage” should be opposed, one must first understand why civilized societies have always rewarded and protected real marriage. There are three primary reasons why marriage historically has been, and should continue to be defined as a committed, lifelong, monogamous relationship between a man and a woman.” [more…] Continue Reading →
FPN Leader Defends Need for Federal Marriage Amendment on CNN
FPN President Debates Late Marriage Amendment Endorsement in Live CNN Interview
Despite promising to fight to push for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would protect marriage as the exclusive union between one man and one woman during his 2004 re-election bid, President Bush failed to deliver in his second term. The day before the U.S. Senate failed to pass a federal Marriage Protection Amendment in June of 2006, FPN President Joe Glover appeared in a nationally-televised debate on CNN to discuss the amendment and to criticize Bush’s lackluster support for its passage.
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FPN Leader Puts Senate Marriage Defeat in Perspective on CNN
Glover debates pro-homosexual “Log Cabin Republican Club” leader Patrick Guerriero.
FPN President Joe Glover discussed the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass a Marriage Protection Amendment before a live national television audience on June 7, 2006 — just hours after the vote took place. In an interview hosted by CNN National Political Correspondent John Roberts, Glover dispelled the notion that Senate inaction proves support for a marriage amendment is slipping. Continue Reading →
WCBM: FPN Policy Analyst Promotes Marriage Defense on Baltimore Station
Just a few days after the U.S. Senate defeated a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, FPN Policy Analyst Alex Mason discussed efforts to protect the family in a live interview on Baltimore, Maryland radio station WCBM. Continue Reading →
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New York Liberal Links “Gay Marriage,” Destruction of Family Unit
A recent column in a conservative publication shows just how broad the political support base is for protecting one-man, one-woman marriage. Readers may not be surprised to learn the head of an organization promoting “American values” penned a commentary in The Weekly Standard — making a strong case for the relationship between the adoption of “gay marriage” and the erosion of traditional values (i.e., higher rates of divorce, unwed childbearing, nonmarital cohabitation, etc.). The surprise comes when readers learn the author is a self-described liberal Democrat from New York who does NOT otherwise oppose homosexual behavior. Continue Reading →
FPN Policy Paper on State Marriage Amendments
In well-intentioned efforts to curb the erosion of the sanctity of marriage by proposing or passing “marriage amendments” to individual state constitutions, many people believe that merely defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman will do the job of protecting the institution of the family.
Sadly, this is not the case. A state (or federal) marriage amendment that does nothing to protect against homosexual civil unions misses the point of protecting the institution of the family. Such attempts fall victim to the idea that the only thing that needs protecting is the word “marriage.”
This policy paper explains Family Policy Network’s (FPN) position on state marriage amendments and explains why the differences in language are so important. Continue Reading →
The Inherent Harm of So-Called “Gay Marriage”
The question is often asked of Christians who oppose the cultural advancement of so-called “gay marriage:” “How would homosexual couples being allowed to file taxes together, adopt, and visit each other in the hospital harm heterosexual couples?”
Read on to learn why so-called “gay marriage” is harmful to the culture. Continue Reading →
Marriage Good for Families, Economy
Family Research Council’s Marriage and Religion Research Institute released a paper last week showing that economic well-being in the United States is strongly related to marriage. The paper, entitled Marriage and Economic Well-Being, shows that married couples are better off economically than persons in any other family structure. The paper reports that only 5.8 percent of married families were living in poverty in 2009. Pat Fagan of FRC said “Having the security of marriage in which to foster children is vital… Continue Reading →
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Weak Marriage Amendments Not Worth the Paper on Which They’re Printed
This year, the Minnesota state legislature approved a marriage amendment that will be placed on statewide ballots in order to be decided by the North Star State’s voters in 2012.
Many Minnesotans believe the proposed marriage amendment will be an adequate bulwark against the growing push to legitimize homosexual marriage in the United States. Sadly, they’re wrong. The marriage amendment they’re backing isn’t much stronger than the paper on which it’s printed. Continue Reading →
New York Approves “Gay Marriage,” But God Doesn’t
The State of New York, in an immensely tragic move, has passed a law creating a “right” to so-called “gay marriage.” The new law means New York has joined Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa and Washington, D.C. in desecrating an institution created and defined by God. As a result, nearly 40 million Americans now live in a state that legitimizes and rewards that which God has called an abomination. Continue Reading →
Governments Should Reward Biblical Marriage
Among Christians in America there is great interest in the subject of marriage. This interest has been greatly increased because of the cultural battle to legitimize so-called “gay marriage.” As a result, many Christians can easily describe what a marriage is not (e.g., homosexual unions, polygamist unions, etc.), but can they describe what marriage is from a Biblical perspective? The unbiblical idea pushed by homosexual activists that a family consists merely of two people who “love” each other could be the tool that God is using to guide His church into a cogent and clear position on what marriage actually should be.
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7/7/11: What is Biblical Marriage?
The interest in marriage has been greatly increased of late because of the cultural battle to legitimize so-called “gay marriage.” As a result, many Christians can easily Continue Reading →
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7/8/11: Biblcal Marriage, Part 2
As culture battles over the definition of marriage, what is the biblical view of the institution? Marriage was created and defined by God from the beginning. While Continue Reading →
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Rejecting Biblical Marriage is a Steep Slippery Slope
Now that homosexual activists have gathered to themselves six states to permit homosexual “couples” to obtain marriage contracts, the figurative barn door is wide open for any kind of “marriage” that the mind can conceive. Continue Reading →
Even Children Recognize God’s Intention for Marriage
A recent article on CNN.com intends to show liberal parents how they can teach their children to accept homosexual “marriage.” But actually, it serves better to illustrate the ability of children to recognize such a fraud when they see it. The author, Lee Rose Emery, begins her article by recounting a time when the topic of marriage came up during a car ride with her kids. Emery, who has no desire to teach her children God’s intention for marriage, remembers telling her children that the most important thing about marriage is to “pick someone who is kind, and who really loves you.” But after dispensing her “wisdom” to her kids, Emery’s eight year-old daughter remarked, “Boys can’t marry boys.” Continue Reading →
3/23/12: Marriage Numbers in Decline
Nearly 40 percent of women have never been married, and fewer are in a first marriage, that’s according to a new government report that takes a detailed Continue Reading →
Majority Still Wants Traditional Marriage
Despite the disappointing outcomes in four states that voted on the issue of marriage on November 6, a national poll conducted on Election Day found that a Continue Reading →
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Department of Justice Tells Supreme Court to Strike Defense of Marriage Act
michiexile / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that a federal law defining marriage as Continue Reading →
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