ERLC, Focus ask SBC pastors to help protect marriage
- Apr 3, 2006 -
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and Focus on the Family Action are leading an effort to help Southern Baptists to persuade their senators to support a federal amendment to protect marriage.
In a letter sent April 12 to all of the more than 43,600 Southern Baptist churches, the ERLC and FOFA asked each pastor to help in seeking passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment, S.J. Res. 1. A Senate vote on the proposal is expected in early June.
The amendment, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, is intended to protect the institution against continuing legal efforts that would identify homosexual relationships, and potentially other groupings, as marriages. So far, only Massachusetts has legalized “homosexual marriage,” but supreme courts in New Jersey, New York and Washington could legitimize “same-sex marriages” before the end of 2006, according to a recent analysis by the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
In their letter, ERLC President Richard Land and FOFA Chairman James Dobson urged Southern Baptist pastors to “involve your congregation . . . in the battle to preserve the biblical definition of marriage in the face” of attacks from “radical liberal groups and homosexual activists.”
Their goal is to surpass a million postcards sent to senators’ state offices, Land and Dobson said. The mailing included sample postcards. Pastors are also encouraged to order sheets of postcards without charge for members of their congregations to use.
In addition, Land and Dobson asked pastors to mention the effort from the pulpit, “if God should lead you to do so.”
FOFA printed, mailed and paid for the mailing to Southern Baptist pastors.
Land and Dobson also were among 50 leaders from a diversity of religious groups to endorse the marriage amendment in an open letter released April 24. The leaders said in the letter the MPA “is the only measure that will adequately protect marriage from those who would circumvent the legislative process and force a redefinition of [marriage] on the whole of our society.”
The proposed amendment says, “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”