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E-mail for May 12, 2004

AGGRESSIVELY PROMOTING TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

        As President of Texas Center for Family Rights I occasionally grapple with which issues dealing with the family are most important to address. Since there a number of other excellent organizations promoting general family issues, pro-life issues and marriage we have tended to focus on parental rights and the child welfare at TCFR. However, today I will emphatically affirm we must aggressively promote traditional marriage NOW! This need was again driven home as yesterday I received the monthly newsletter from Focus on the Family.

        Dr. Dobson paints an alarming picture of the current state of western civilization specifically with regard to the family, a picture for which he has been severely criticized. Since one could legitimately ask what is the basis for my evaluation of his comments, allow me to share a little of my background.

        In the fall of 1971 I walked into an auditorium to begin History 105, an Introduction to Western Civilization at Cornell University. Four years later in 1975 after completing all my requirements including numerous other courses in the humanities, I graduated with a degree in history and a specific concentration in European intellectual history. Along with my interest in history I took a variety of courses in comparative religion and literature. Following graduation I became interested in the Bible and took numerous courses to learn and apply the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments. And several years ago, based upon a concern for the direction of our country I entered law school to help uphold constitutional liberties through the courts and public policy.

        While I do not consider myself an expert in any field I believe this education in both Biblical and secular studies, gives me some understanding of the backdrop of western civilization. Subsequently, I share the opening two paragraphs of Dr. Dobson's letter agreeing with his analysis:

        I write to you today with a profound sense of concern and apprehension for the welfare of the family, and indeed, for the future of our nation. I do not recall a time since the beginnings of Focus on the Family, 27 years ago, when the institution of marriage faced such peril, or when the forces arrayed against it were more formidable or determined. Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise.

        For more than 40 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. The institution of marriage, along with an often weakened and impotent Church, is all that stands in the way of its achievement of every coveted aspiration. Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies. These objectives that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago have largely been achieved or are now within reach. All that remains is for the movement and its friends in the media, the entertainment industry, the professions, the government and the military, to deliver the coup de grace to a beleaguered institution that was given to humanity by the Creator in the Garden of Eden. We in North America and Europe are not simply "slouching towards Gomorrah," as Judge Robert Bork warned in his best-selling book1; we are hurtling toward it.

        Dr. Dobson then enumerates ten reasons why the issue of gay marriage impacts culture to such a significant degree. I will cite eight of them:
        1. The implications for children in a world of decaying families are profound.

        2. The introduction of legalized gay marriages will lead inexorably to polygamy and other alternatives to one-man,         one-woman unions.

        3. An even greater objective of the homosexual movement is to end the state's compelling interest in marital         relationships altogether.

        4. With the legalization of homosexual marriage, every public school in the nation will be required to teach that this         perversion is the moral equivalent of traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

        5. From that point forward, courts will not be able to favor a traditional family involving one man and one woman         over a homosexual couple in matters of adoption.

        6. Foster-care parents will be required to undergo "sensitivity training" to rid themselves of bias in favor of         traditional marriage, and will have to affirm homosexuality in children and teens.

        7. How about the impact on Social Security if there are millions of new dependents that will be entitled to survivor         benefits?

        8. Marriage among homosexuals will spread throughout the world, just as pornography did after the Nixon         Commission declared obscene material "beneficial" to mankind.

        (Dr. Dobson's full letter can be viewed here)

        Two actions can be taken to make a constructive difference. In the midst of intense controversy during the Constitutional convention in 1787, not unlike controversy regarding the issue of marriage, one of the delegates considered to be least religious, Benjamin Franklin, implored that body in the following manner:

        The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other - our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

        In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding! In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

        I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

        The first action, therefore, that I encourage readers to take is to pray for God's will in our land regarding this issue. Secondly I encourage you to take action in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Let your congressmen and senators in Washington know of your strong support for it and that you are relying on them to help to sway other legislators who are currently sitting on the fence.

        Please feel free to contact me if you have comments or questions regarding this issue.

Respectfully,
Peter Johnston
President