The Hartford, MD Aegis Newspaper:

A number of Harford County churches and religious leaders are leading the local fight to revoke Maryland's new same-sex marriage law before it can go into effect.

Several Harford churches are supporting the Maryland Marriage Alliance coalition in a statewide petition drive challenging the law passed by the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year.

That law does not take effect until January 2013, and its opponents must get at least 56,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot in November.

"That is a slam dunk," Southern Harford Del. Glen Glass predicted, noting the drive already has more than 30,000 signatures statewide. He expects it will ultimately get more than 75,000.

The marriage drive is doing really, really well," Glass said Tuesday. "[The Alliance leaders] are spending a lot of money and they are going church to church, and getting tons of signatures."

Oak Grove Baptist Church, on Churchville Road in Bel Air, has been the local distribution point for the petition drive and the church is leading a petition sign-up effort through Saturday at the Motor Vehicle Administration location in Bel Air.

The church's marquee at Churchville and Thomas Run roads has been advertising that drive.

The church has already reached the goal of 6,446 signatures set for Harford County by the Alliance, organizer LaVerne Cash said Monday.

The petitioners must get at least a third of the required signatures by the end of May and the remainder by the end of June, she said.

For Oak Grove Baptist and many other Harford churches, opposing same-sex marriage is a matter of biblical principle.