Marriage Equality

Election Day was a lousy day for the Religious Right. But movement leaders have been quick to assert that they are not to blame, pointing fingers variously at Hurricane Sandy, Mitt Romney, the unknown waiter who recorded Romney’s dismissive “47 percent” remarks, and the strong turnout of young voters and people of color.

The Religious Right took a drubbing at the polls yesterday as voters rejected not only Mitt Romney but also some of the most extreme Republican candidates, even those in races that should have been easy Republican victories. Like other conservatives, many Religious Right activists predicted a big victory for Romney and Republicans in the U.S. Senate based on five myths they hold about the electorate:

Myth #1: Americans want a ‘True Conservative’

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody called the results a “nightmare for the GOP” and a “colossal disaster.” Of course, right-wing activists will be quick to declare that Mitt Romney, like John McCain, wasn’t conservative enough for voters, and that the self-described “severely conservative” Romney couldn’t effectively articulate or sell conservative principles. Their solution is that the next nominee must be a pure right-wing ideologue who emphasizes social issues, like Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum. Of course, if voters were seeking to support ultraconservative politicians, then Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock wouldn’t have lost their Senate races in the red states of Missouri and Indiana, Tea Party hero Allen West wouldn’t have lost re-election and Michele Bachmann wouldn’t have merely eked out a tiny win in her heavily Republican district.

Myth #2: Blacks will Defect from Obama over Gay Rights

Black conservative activists such as Harry Jackson, E.W. Jackson, William Owens, Patrick Wooden and Star Parker continue to tell the largely white Religious Right leadership that African Americans are defecting en masse from the purportedly demonic, Baal worshiping, anti-Christian and anti-God Democratic Party and will turn against Obama over the issue of marriage equality. Pat Robertson even said that Democratic support for marriage equality is a “death wish” and Mike Huckabee said the move “may end up sinking the ship.” According to exit polls, however, Obama won African Americans 93-6 percent. African Americans also turned out in strong numbers and didn’t stay home, with the same high turnout rate (13 percent of all voters) as 2008. In addition, marriage equality had victories in the four states it was on the ballot.

Myth #3: Hispanics are ‘Natural Allies’ of the Religious Right

Conservatives claimed that Hispanic voters, especially those who identify as evangelical and Pentecostal, are ripe for supporting Republicans. Samuel Rodriguez of the conservative National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and others continue to argue that Hispanics are strongly opposed to abortion rights (not true) and gay rights (also not true), and therefore “natural allies” of the Religious Right. Romney actually fared worse (27%) than McCain (31%) among Hispanics.

Myth #4: Catholics Abandoning Obama for ‘Declaring War’ on the Church

Heavy politicking from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and growing outreach to Catholics by traditionally evangelical Religious Right groups didn’t stop Obama from once again carrying the Catholic vote. Republicans consistently claimed that Obama declared “war on religion” and specifically “attacking the Catholic Church,” and hoped Paul Ryan’s use of Catholicism to justify his draconian budget plan would bring Catholics into the GOP fold. Obama led 50-48 percent in exit polls, down slightly from his 54 percent total in 2008.

Myth #5: Evangelical Wave Waiting in the Wings

New groups such as the Faith and Freedom Coalition and United in Purpose/Champion the Vote boasted of grand plans to turn out a wave of evangelical Christians upset about health care reform and marriage equality. But according to exits, Protestant (not all of whom identify as evangelical) turnout remained about the same this year (53 percent) as the last president election (54 percent). Christianity Today notes that in swing states, self-described evangelical turnout was approximately identical or merely slightly larger as it was in 2008, and Romney’s support among evangelicals compared to McCain’s decreased in states like Ohio and Nevada.

Conservative talk show host Janet Parshall joined Crosstalk host Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America this week to promote her book, Buyer Beware: Finding Truth in the Marketplace of Ideas. The two spent much of the time discussing Parshall’s time working for VCY America, before becoming a leader of Concerned Women for America and National Religious Broadcasters, but soon began discussing a prior Crosstalk program that blamed Hurricane Sandy on the gay community. While Parshall said she is not in the position to say whether God used the hurricane to punish New York for legalizing same-sex marriage, she did claim once again that Satan is the main culprit behind the push for LGBT rights.

Listen:

Parshall: While this gets debated in the halls of Congress and while it gets adjudicated from the high courts of this country, in the end this is a spiritual battle and we need to put on spiritual eyes and understand that the Father of Lies hates the model of marriage because it is such a profound message of Christ’s unconditional love for us, the church. So we begin to see all of these skirmishes, so battles for same-sex marriage are nothing more than the Great Deceiver himself still rattling his tail saying to a watching culture, ‘did God really say’? And the answer back from the church has to be without blush, hesitation or embarrassment: ‘yes he did, and here I stand, marriage is and always shall be one man and one woman.’

The 700 Club today reported on Gallaudet University’s suspension of their chief diversity officer for signing a petition to put Maryland’s marriage equality law on the ballot. Gay rights advocates, including the leaders of Marylanders for Marriage Equality and Gov. Martin O’Malley have said that they strongly disagreed with Gallaudet’s decision, but host Pat Robertson tried to claim that the university’s move was representative of the entire left and the gay rights movement. “The left wants a dictatorship,” Robertson claimed, “they don’t want freedom.” The anti-gay televangelist argued that “they want a dictatorship where they control, which is what you had in communism, a small group ran the government for their ends and for the ends of their friends, and that’s what the gays want, they want everything now in their favor.” Robertson concluded by saying that “God Almighty has the final vote.”

Watch:

William Owens of the Coalition of African-American Pastors and the National Organization for Marriage’s religious liaison is hoping that his anti-Obama, anti-gay campaign will pay off in November by pulling black voters away from supporting Obama. While sitting down with Jamilah Lemieux of Ebony, Owens said that black voters are turning against Obama “because [our site] had nearly 90 thousand hits and 85 percent of the people are on our side on this issue” and also told Lemieux that “there isn’t such thing as separation as church and state.” Owens effectively admitted to Lemieux that CAAP is a single-issue organization dedicated to opposing same-sex marriage, insisting that marriage equality for gays and lesbians must be stopped because “the Black family has been destroyed” and will “help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else.”

JL: Black people are literally on fire right now. You have people--- teenagers, kids---dying in Chicago. Getting shot 10, 12, 30 in a night and you're sending out daily press releases about same sex marriage. Is this the greatest challenge of your generation or my generation? is this the biggest fight that we have in the middle of an election season? Do we have that much to lose from gay people getting married?

RO: I think we do. First of all, the Black family has been destroyed. When I grew up there were more Black men going to college, now there are more Black men going to prison. Something is wrong.

JL: What does that have to do with homosexuality? There are Black men who have went to college and graduate and got married and are gay and also Black men who have women who they’ve been in intimate relationships with who didn’t go to college and who don’t provide for their children. So who is the problem in our community?

RO: We're our own problem right now. We are are own problem and we need good moral leadership and I expected that from Obama. Same sex marriage is not [representative of that]...I felt that that one issue was enough to help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else.

His wife Deborah Owens made a similar assertion in a Washington Times op-ed where she warned that the “homosexual agenda” will “erode the very foundation of our society” and “place our youth on a dangerous trajectory toward a bleak future in which mothers and fathers don’t matter, values don’t matter and children are placed at risk.” She said gays and lesbians “have crept out of the closet, and now they want to take over the entire house,” arguing that Obama is “putting our country on a dangerous path and our children and families in peril” by backing their right to marry, jeopardizing “our future as a nation” and “our freedom.”

Some criticize us for not supporting the practice, but accepting homosexuals and lesbians is a separate issue from redefining marriage for millions of Americans. Homosexuals and lesbians have been around for a long time, though many of them were “in the closet.” Over time, they have crept out of the closet, and now they want to take over the entire house. If a man loves another man or a woman desires another woman, there is nothing in our current law stopping two consenting adults from engaging in a relationship, though it is not normal behavior. We are about to cross a dangerous line, with civil leaders trying to force all Americans to accept homosexual unions and change the historical and biblical definition of marriage.

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The black American community already is plagued with problems related to children growing up in single-parent households. For example, a boy who lacks a father in the home is more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior unless he has a positive male role model to help shape him. The homosexual agenda, which attempts to redefine family and marriage, will erode the very foundation of our society. It will place our youth on a dangerous trajectory toward a bleak future in which mothers and fathers don’t matter, values don’t matter and children are placed at risk.

Evidence shows that the lack of intact families in our society leads to social, psychological and emotional problems for children. Why would Mr. Obama want to make homosexual “marriage” equal to traditional marriage when children already face a multitude of issues? The president and others want to legitimize and normalize homosexual “marriage” and shove it down the throats of those who disagree because he is the leader and he said so.

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What black person would deny the first black man running for the highest office in America a chance to become president? He represented hope for us all, and he was the realization of the dream for many Americans who never thought they would live to see a black president. We were soon disillusioned. Mr. Obama has betrayed us by his endorsement of homosexual “marriage,” putting our country on a dangerous path and our children and families in peril.

On the homosexual “marriage” issue, this black mom is not following Mr. Obama.

Our hope in man, even one man, cannot come at the cost of our hope in God.

Our future as a nation is at stake. Our freedom is in the balance. Mr. Obama has given his followers an invalid command: Endorse homosexual “marriage.” This edict must not be the law of this land. The risks are too great.

During an interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, Paul Ryan reassured the anti-gay group that a Romney-Ryan administration will fiercely oppose gay rights. Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson have a long history of promoting anti-gay policies and ex-gay therapy, and earned a shout-out from Romney earlier this week while campaigning in Colorado, where it is headquartered.

While Romney has moved in his career from backing gay rights to becoming a vocal foe, Ryan has a solidly anti-gay voting record in Congress. Ryan told Daly, whose political arm has been spending money on behalf of Romney and a number of other Republican candidates like Todd Akin, that the ticket is firmly against same-sex marriage and that he was a “big supporter” of a 2006 amendment which enshrined marriage discrimination into the Wisconsin state constitution. He also said the Obama administration’s decision not to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act hurt the “rule of law” and “contradicts our system of government,” however, a number of presidents including George W. Bush have not defended statutes they deemed unconstitutional.

Daly: Focus on the Family has been behind the scenes working for years to defend marriage and to speak out for marriage and the importance of marriage. I think thirty-two out of thirty-two states where we have helped put a ballot initiative or some other mechanism in front of the people, we have won that thirty-two out of thirty-two times. It seems like when it’s in front of the people they vote for it, if it’s the state-level judges they will try to do it by fiat or if it is simply some other mechanism, the State House passes it without the vote of the people. For the Romney-Ryan ticket, when you look at marriage, what do we need to do in the culture to lift up and strengthen the very core building block of society and that’s family.

Ryan: It’s the foundation for society and for family for thousands of years. First of all, Mitt Romney and I — I’ll just say it, it’s worth repeating — we believe marriage is between one man and one woman, that’s number one. Number two, you know where I come from we had one of those amendments in Wisconsin, I was a big supporter of it and we passed it like you say, where it’s put on the ballot it passes. The second point is, President Obama gave up defending the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, I mean, not only is this decision to abandon this law the wrong decision, it passed in a bipartisan manner, it is very troubling because it undermines not only traditional marriage but it contradicts our system of government. It’s not the president’s job to pick and choose which laws he likes. A Romney administration will protect traditional marriage and the rule of law and we will provide the Defense of Marriage Act the proper defense in the courts that it deserves.

Trying to boost his campaign to generate a voter rebellion against Democrats over the issue of marriage equality, Harry Jackson wrote in his column today that legalizing same-sex marriage would harm children. He asserts that gay couples who seek to become parents “put their own fleeting desires ahead of the God-given rights of their children,” whose children he says are more likely to be gay, depressed, unemployed or drug users. Jackson cited the work of Walter Schumm of Kansas State University to back up his claims, but Schumm’s work has been roundly criticized and he is closely tied to anti-gay crackpot Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute. Later, Jackson mentioned the notorious Mark Regnerus study as part of his warning against gay parenting. What Jackson fails to mention, however, is that even the journal that published his report recently admitted that it was severely flawed, noting that just two of the respondents actually “lived with a lesbian couple for their entire childhoods, and most did not live with lesbian or gay parents for long periods, if at all.”

The reason that legally defined marriage is important is because of children. It takes a mother and a father to conceive a child, and children have a God-given right to have a relationship with both their biological mother and their biological father. Children also have a God-given right to have both a male role model and a female role model in their homes. There are certainly times when tragedy takes a parent from a child, but what about the much more frequent times when adults put their own fleeting desires ahead of the God-given rights of their children? Desires change, as the breakups of both heterosexual and homosexual relationships testify.

As our nation continues to wrestle with the meaning and precise definition of marriage Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered activists consistently dismiss the issue of children. Same-sex marriage advocates insist that children of homosexual couples have the same or better outcomes than children of heterosexual couples. Unfortunately for them these assertions are based more on philosophy than hard science. For example, a 2010 study by Dr. Walter Schumm of Kansas State University confirmed that adult children raised by homosexual couples are (unsurprisingly) two to five times as likely to identify themselves as homosexual as children of heterosexuals. But the nation is divided as to whether that is an important outcome or not.

More specifically, whenever the topic of children reared by gay parents is raised: the assertion is made that there are no special problems or disadvantages because of their parents’ choices of “partners.” But this image (if remotely true) represents a tiny, disproportionately wealthy fraction of the gay population. Most of the scientists who have researched the children of such families admit as much.

Common sense would remind us that the results of any particular study depends both on how one defines a household headed by an LGBT couple, and what factors one evaluates when looking at “outcomes.” Dr. Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas, Austin, recently set out to hear the stories of the adults living in America today who were raised by parents in homosexual relationships. LGBT activists have fought vigorously to malign and suppress his findings. In short, he learned that, on 25 of 40 different outcomes evaluated, the children of women who’ve had same-sex relationships fare quite differently than those in stable, biologically-intact mom-and-pop families, displaying numbers more comparable to those from heterosexual stepfamilies and single parents.

This study included controls for age, race, gender, and the impact of being bullied as a youth, or the gay-friendliness of the state in which they live. Yet the respondents of same-sex parents were more apt to become unemployed, be less healthy and more depressed. They also were more likely to have cheated on a spouse or partner, have more male and female sex partners, experience more sexual victimization, and were more likely to reflect negatively on their childhood family life. Those raised by same-sex couples also were more likely to smoke marijuana and have trouble with the law.

At this point in our nation, no one is debating the right of consenting adults to do what they wish with each other in private. But redefining the ancient institution of marriage is an entirely different matter. This will set the stage for more and more children to grow up without a mother or a father, simply to placate the desire of adults. We must fight to preserve the traditional definition of marriage for the sake of these children.

Before telling attendees of the Values Voter Summit about her “sexual rampage” as part of an attack on Sandra Fluke and the contraception coverage mandate, right-wing activist Star Parker sat down with Buster Wilson of the American Family Association to knock the Republican Party for not being anti-gay enough. While Paul Ryan is a vehement opponent of gay rights, Wilson and Parker were upset that Ryan did not speak in depth about his stance against marriage equality at a time when Democrats are campaigning on the issue.

Parker offered a stern warning to the GOP: speak out against same-sex marriage or lose God’s blessing. Parker, who interviewed Ryan for her own show, expressed disappointment in his speech and said that she was “not confident that God is going to shine down upon the party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan, while we are running away from the very core issues that birthed us as a party.” In fact, Parker even likened the fight over marriage equality to the debate over slavery.

Wilson: One of the things that Paul Ryan did not speak of in his speech today was the issue of marriage, it seemed like once again ‘it’s the economy stupid’ with this campaign and we’ve done everything we can do to shy away from any of the social issues, in particular marriage. But not the Democrats, it seemed like everybody that spoke at the Democratic Convention brought up the fact that they were the party for abortion and gay marriage and gay rights. Why do you think the conservatives that are—let me rephrase this— why do you think the Romney campaign seems to want to shy away from those issues as much as he does.

Parker: Because the Republican Party is a political party, when you think about the social environment, if you think about the social issues, they demand us to talk about morality and I think that the Republican Party has made the decision that they don’t want to. The challenge before them, however, is that this election is about choosing who we are going to serve. According to the Scripture, God said I’d laid life and death before you, good and evil before you, those are defining topics. As you just mentioned, Democrats have made it clear who they are and they are going to make sure that we define ourselves. So it is unfortunate that even though Romney and the Republicans have decided that we are not going to define ourselves and that now Paul Ryan has not done that here at the Values Voter Summit. I do not know who prepared his remarks for him, I love him, I’ve known him since he came to Washington, D.C., I am very hopeful that his star will consider to shine. But I am just not confident that God is going to shine down upon the party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan, while we are running away from the very core issues that birthed us as a party. We are at that critical cross point, similar to the 1850s; we cannot go on like this half-free and half-slave. We are going to have to do what Abraham Lincoln did and that’s reach into the Scripture and say ‘a house divided against itself can’t stand.’

William Owens Jr., whose father William Owens works for the National Organization for Marriage and runs the right-wing Coalition of African-American Pastors, is out with a new article suggesting that President Obama is preparing for a dictatorship and may even be a Muslim. He charges that the “anti-American” Obama wants to “render America decrepit and ripe for a dictatorial-style second four-year term” and to do this the Democrats must do away with God: “The God of the Bible has been rejected by this party as they have welcomed the god of another. With a record increase of Muslims in attendance, the message is clear and President Obama has raised the stakes for the fight for America by throwing in all the chips.”

Owens Jr. also claimed that Obama, simply by personally endorsing marriage equality, intends to “pass laws that would threaten to jail and/or fine pastors who didn’t perform” same-sex nuptials because he “believes pastors to be homophobic and is committed to punishing such thoughts by law” and wants to “destroy the family – by doing away with it.”

“The trajectory of Obama is leading to a tragedy of untold proportions and in less than 60 days,” he writes, “if we don't remove him, I'm afraid that tragedy is set for America.”

The trajectory of Obama's ideology has finally arrived at its dark destination … a godless America, a family-less America, and an un-American America.

Since Obama has taken the White House, he has been effective in his quest to fundamentally change the course of America. He realizes this is not possible unless he removes the fundamentals of America: God, family and country, even if it means going against the wishes of most Americans, which he has done with disdain and contempt.

In 2008, Obama started his first days as president with a world tour apologizing for America's exceptionalism in hopes of propping up other countries by putting America down. He relished the opportunity to vent a well-fostered resentment for the country that voted him in as president. A people who fall prey to both Black pride and white guilt became victims of his twisted ideology. Americans did not expect a president would use the sacred office to dislodge their country with a methodology that smells of corruption, deception and apostasy.

You may kiss the bride," says the pastor as two people of the same sex lean over to kiss each other inside a Bible-believing church. Why? Because Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage would pass laws that would threaten to jail and/or fine pastors who didn't perform these unions among a group that accounts for less than 2% of the American population. He believes pastors to be homophobic and is committed to punishing such thoughts by law. It is a fact that most Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs, view marriage as being between ONE man and ONE woman. This is how he has purposed to destroy the family – by doing away with it.

It is not Obama's concerns for the homosexual that has prompted him to support same-sex marriage. It is for the vote and the moneybag. Obama is a master at using individuals as well as groups to accomplish his objective, and if it means taking anti-American positions, he will do it. If it means falsifying genuine concern for a group of people to attain their money and their vote, he will do it. How do I know? It's a reality. Just ask Black Americans. Ask Jeremiah Wright. To render America decrepit and ripe for a dictatorial-style second four-year term, Obama must show just who he is and rally to himself two type of supporters: those who get it and love it, and those who don't have a clue and love it any way.

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The God of the Bible has been rejected by this party as they have welcomed the god of another. With a record increase of Muslims in attendance, the message is clear and President Obama has raised the stakes for the fight for America by throwing in all the chips.

More than Obama, however, we Americans, evangelicals and pastors of the Judeo-Christian faith have become passive and have not fulfilled our duty to defend our faith and to speak the truth.

The trajectory of Obama is leading to a tragedy of untold proportions and in less than 60 days, if we don't remove him, I'm afraid that tragedy is set for America.

Only God, whom the Democratic Party has rejected, can and will save America. Unless those who believe and honor this God, of which much of America was founded and arise in His name, many believe America's real hope is lost.

It's really not about what Obama will do; it's about what most Americans won't do: stand up for our Freedoms and Liberties given by God not by a man nor by President Obama himself.

NOM even posted a video of Owens Jr. and his father along with right-wing activist Johnny Hunter denouncing Obama in Charlotte, North Carolina.