Pressure mounts as Bush backs gay marriage ban_30804

Posted: 3/05/04

Pressure mounts as Bush backs gay marriage ban

By Robert Marus & Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Ending months of silence and under increasing pressure, President Bush has announced he will support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

However, he did not say if he would go so far as to support a measure that also outlaws marriage-like arrangements for same-sex couples nationwide–a ban some of his most conservative supporters favor.

“After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” Bush said.

“If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America.”

Recent actions of “activist judges” as well as some local officials made support for an amendment necessary, Bush said. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that the state's constitution requires it to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The same court recently reaffirmed that decision.

On Feb. 12, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered municipal officials to begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. More than 3,000 couples have been married since then. Officials in Sandoval County, N.M., soon followed suit.

Because of these developments, Bush has been under mounting pressure from many religious conservatives to support a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. They view the amendment as the only remedy to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide.

While most polls show that a large majority of Americans oppose legalization of same-sex marriage, barely a majority support an amendment to outlaw it. Polls also suggest the question is far less important to most voters than the economy, national security and other issues.

Reaction to Bush's announcement was swift–and reflected society's polarization.

Conservative religious leaders applauded the president's announcement and agreed any other remedy is inadequate.

“The president was right on target when he said activist courts have left the American people no other recourse,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “Nothing short of an amendment will protect the institution of marriage from an out-of-control judiciary.”

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said Bush “has now properly concluded that we have 'reached the last resort' in preserving the sanctity of marriage.”

Citing a survey that suggests 70 percent of Americans oppose same-sex marriage, Land said, “The only way the American people can make their voice heard on this issue is to avail themselves of the mechanism provided by the founding fathers, namely amending the United States Constitution.”

But liberal Christian leaders showed their displeasure with equal fervor.

“It's disturbing that our president would be willing to write discrimination into the Constitution of the United States,” said Laura Montgomery Rutt, spokesperson for the religious gay-rights group Soulforce. “We believe that the majority of fair-minded Americans–religious leaders and people of faith–do not support” amending the Constitution for such a purpose.

The president's support for banning gay marriage is a church-state issue, because “Bush is supporting one religion's view of marriage and putting it into a government document,” Rutt said. Because of that view, “you don't have to be in favor of gay marriage to oppose the amendment.”

Stan Hastey, leader of the Alliance of Baptists and a constitutional scholar, agreed. “My view is the Constitution should be amended only in the most extreme of circumstances when there is a national consensus that is clearly settled,” he said.

“Usually when hot-button issues like this come along, it is very rare when the Constitution has been amended quickly that there has been a good result,” Hastey said. He cited Prohibition as an example of a constitutional amendment that caused more harm than good.

Although Bush announced he supports an amendment banning gay marriage, he also noted any such amendment “should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.”

This would allow states to create legal arrangements for same-sex couples–such as civil unions–that grant most or all of the same benefits as marriage while reserving the term “marriage” itself for heterosexual unions.

Bush also did not mention the Federal Marriage Amendment by name in his comments. Currently assigned to committees in both houses of Congress, it would ban both gay marriage and “the legal incidents thereof” nationwide.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) predicted the House could vote on the amendment by the end of the year.

Many of the amendment's supporters have said it would only prevent courts from forcing same-sex marriage on states. But most of its opponents and many mainstream legal scholars argue its language is ambiguous enough to ban civil unions and even overturn many domestic-partnership rights that states and municipalities have long granted to same-sex couples.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he would favor a constitutional amendment to protect marriage if it allows for civil unions and attendant legal rights.

In a related development, about 70 of the nation's leading conservative religious leaders have signed a letter thanking Bush for his courage in endorsing the amendment.

The letter, dated Feb. 24, includes such names as Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Land, Charles Colson, Tony Perkins and D. James Kennedy.

In addition to Land, the letter is signed by four other Southern Baptist leaders, including Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

Leaders from the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Holiness), Missionary Church, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and International Pentecostal Holiness Church also signed it.

“Mr. President, we applaud your courage,” the letter reads. “There have been times in our history when presidents have been called upon to make difficult decisions to protect the balance of power in our government. Abraham Lincoln did this when he refused to recognize the constitutional precedent of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. We think you are making just such a stand in opposing what we view as runaway courts. Thank you … for doing what is right.”

The letter promises the leaders' support in pushing an amendment.

“We pledge to you that we will do everything in our power to inform and educate our constituents about the importance and urgency of this issue both for the preservation of the family in America as well as the right ordering of our government,” it reads. “We will speak on behalf of and to our communities, encouraging their fullest participation in what must be a great national debate to preserve the sanctity of marriage and representative government.”

The leaders also praised Bush for his leadership in preserving the traditional family.

Other Southern Baptists signing the letter are Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board.

Baptist Press also contributed to this story