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LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A new coalition of pastors who have committed energies and resources into supporting a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage are hoping the concept across California.
“God’s Design for Marriage” was launched Oct. 16 in San Diego to encourage pastors to get involved in efforts to block the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.
Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, and Miles McPherson, pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego, brought their message to Los Angeles Oct. 17 during the California Restoration Project’s pastors’ policy briefing. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the guest speaker.
Organizers gave Garlow a few minutes to share about a burgeoning movement in San Diego.
“They seemed responsive,” Garlow said a few days after the meeting. “The response was extremely strong. I think there is high motivation to take action, a high motivation to do something.”
Of the 500 pastors in attendance at the Los Angeles briefing, Garlow said about 300 were from Calvary congregations. According to sources, many Calvary churches have started Salt and Light ministries, a relatively new movement that educates Christians about vital family-centered issues such as religious freedom, homosexuality and abortion.
Many of the Calvary congregations could be asked to get their people involved in the effort to save marriage.
“I do believe there is a growing awareness among the pastors that this is a bona fide survival issue,” the San Diego pastor said. “I think it’s beginning to sink in, but it’s not quite to critical mass, yet.”
Garlow said Christian leaders in California were given “a real jolt and a wake-up call” Oct. 12 when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stunned conservatives by signing into law several bills—similar to those he vetoed last year—that expand homosexual teaching in public schools.
Silencing schools
In signing the California Student Civil Rights Act, known as SB 777, the governor has made it illegal for any public school to use curricula, other resource materials and activities that portrays gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered in a negative light.
Ron Prentice, president of the California Family Council, in a meeting of 175 San Diego pastors held the day before the Los Angeles briefing, warned that SB 777 is intended to silence teachers, administrators, staff and students from sharing their faith and beliefs regarding alternative lifestyles.
“You need to know that for many, many years the homosexual lobby has been pursuing this agenda. … The reality is there is a very clear agenda, and they almost accomplished all of it,” Prentice said.
One of the few remaining holdouts, he said, is traditional marriage, although domestic partnership laws granted by the state of California have already bestowed most traditional marriage rights to same-sex couples.
“Everything is moving toward an annihilation of the traditional, biblical and historic definition of marriage between one man and one woman,” he said.
Prentice told the spiritual leaders that he believes the ultimate goal of the pursuit of same-sex marriage is not for the right to marry, but to normalize homosexuality. In Sweden, he added, where same-sex marriage is legal, less than 3 percent of same-sex couples actually wed.
“Heterosexual marriage is built on commitment and covenant before the Lord, and homosexual relationships are something very, very different,” Prentice said.
Mayoral fallout
San Diego pastors were also emboldened after San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders broke a campaign pledge to protect traditional marriage by signing a “friend-of-the-court” brief supporting same-sex marriage. The amicus brief was sent to the state Supreme Court on behalf of the city of San Diego.
The state’s high court is about to review a challenge to Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative approved by nearly 62 percent of voters that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. A ruling is expected next year and many court observers anticipate the court will likely overturn the proposition, paving the way for legislators and the governor to legalize gay marriage.
Many in San Diego Christian circles are not willing to stand by and wait. Instead, they have initiated “God’s Design for Marriage,” a pro-marriage strategy to jump-start the Protect Marriage petition drive to create a state constitutional amendment that would permanently protect traditional marriage and place it outside the jurisdiction of both the legislature and the courts.
Those petitions are expected to be ready for circulation the first week in December. A second proposed amendment by a different pro-family group was dismissed as unlikely to succeed at the polls.
From the pulpit
The four-point strategy includes having area pastors, in advance of the petition’s release, dedicate at least 10 minutes of their sermon time on Thanksgiving weekend to the affirmation of marriage and discussing the petition drive.
At least 700,000 signatures from registered voters are required to get the amendment on the ballot. To account for inevitable errors in the petition process, supporters need up to 1.2 million signatures total.
In another strategic move, pastors are being urged to allow petition drives at their churches and to encourage members to take petitions out into the community. The group would have until the first of April to get the signatures in order to qualify for the November 2008 ballot.
“When the shepherd says it, the people go,” Penny Harrington, state legislative director for Concerned Women for America, told the gathering.
Prentice one of the main supporters of the Protect Marriage amendment, told the pastors the broad-based coalition is hoping volunteers can gather at least 500,000 signatures, with the rest coming from paid workers. Without volunteers, the cost to gather signatures could be as high as $2.5 million. Once qualified, supporters would need additional money for a publicity campaign to counter the opposition. According to research supplied by California Family Council, gay rights groups across the country have been spending $3 to $5 to counter every $1 spent on traditional marriage causes.
The pastors plan to keep the measure in front of the public by coordinating an affirmation of marriage vows in conjunction with Valentine’s Day. Details for that phase are still being determined.
The final strategy, once the amendment makes the ballot, is to promote the November election and host voter registration drives.
Garlow, emphasizing he did not want to appear as an alarmist or melodramatic, said he was sensing many pastors have come to the point where they are willing to lay it all on the line.
“I will not compromise my dignity, my integrity, my honor and my stand for Christ,” he said. “Whatever it costs, it costs. So be it.”
ACTION POINT:
• Learn more about this issue at protectmarriage.com
The Protect Marriage amendment reads:
“Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
The Protect Marriage coalition includes the California Family Council, the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, Capitol Resource Institute, Pacific Justice Institute, Eagle Forum of California and, for legal counsel, The Alliance Defense Fund.
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