3 states gear up for homosexual marriage fight

As three states – California, Florida and Arizona – prepare to vote on constitutional marriage amendments this fall, pastors and other citizens across denominational lines are organizing to fight for traditional marriage.

Through a series of scheduled "webinars" and conference calls held at churches throughout the three battleground states, religious leaders from a diversity of churches – Hispanic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Coptic, Orthodox, Catholic and more – are getting together to strategize on mobilizing the Church to oppose the spread of homosexual marriage.

Concerned Women for America recorded over 2,000 pastors registered for the first conference call on July 30, with five more dates scheduled on Aug. 27, Sept. 24, Oct. 8, Oct. 22 and Nov. 6. Currently 9 churches in Arizona, 25 in Florida and 168 in California are signed up as gathering places to join in the next conference call.

"I think it's refreshing that pastors in Arizona, California, and Florida are taking the lead on these initiatives in their states," said Michael Mears, director of state legislative relations for CWA, in a press release. "I often wonder if our Christian leaders really understand the impact on their own churches if we fail."

Though the technicality of the law varies from state to state and some states face pending court cases, at least 40 U.S. states have laws effectively banning both "gay" marriage and "civil unions" between homosexual partners, and 27 states have marriage defined as exclusively between one man and one woman written in their constitutions.

In California, however, a May 15 California Supreme Court decision struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Now Californians are pressing for the passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that would overturn the judges' decision by providing that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

Penny Harrington, director of legislation for CWA in California stated in a press release, "Proposition 8 is presently the most crucial battle of the culture war here. It is the responsibility of every pro-family individual in this state to understand and share the importance of protecting marriage by supporting Proposition 8 this November."

"The ballot initiatives in Arizona, California, and Florida provide an opportunity for pro-family citizens to tell the courts and the nation that they have had enough of judicial activism," said Mears. "I constantly hear people say that if the courts are going to continue to rewrite the Constitution and the law, then 'we the people' have to do something about it. That's the message that the people in these three states are sending."

In the 2004 election, 11 states had constitutional marriage amendments on the ballot, and all 11 passed. The only state on record to vote down a ballot-approved marriage amendment was Arizona, where the measure was narrowly defeated in 2006.

Sally Mikesell, state director of CWA for Arizona, sees the events in California as a wake-up call to people in her state to reverse the vote from two years ago.

"The people of Arizona will be able to decide the future of marriage in their state," she said, referring to Ballot Proposition 102, which states that only a union of one man and one woman will be valid or recognized as a marriage in Arizona. "Judges will not make the decision for the citizens as the activist California Supreme Court did. Hard work must be done in the months ahead to protect the sanctity of marriage."

In Florida, citizens gathered almost 650,000 signatures, according to the St. Petersburg Times, to place the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment (also known as Amendment 2) on the fall ballot. The proposed amendment states, "Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

Florida's Amendment 2 stands out for banning both homosexual marriage and "civil unions".

Each of the states has a website or websites devoted to succeeding in the ballot battle: Protectmarriage.com in California, YESforMarriage.com in Arizona and Yes2Marriage.org in Florida.

Additional information on the pastors' conference calls and locations available to participate in each of the three states can be found at the Pastor's Rapid Response Team website.