It's 1973 For Marriage
March 12, 2013
Frank Schubert is NOM's national political director and has managed many of the campaigns to preserve marriage, including Proposition 8 in California.
Dear Marriage Supporter,
It was an otherwise crisp winter day in 1973 when the United States Supreme Court issued their horrific decision in Roe v Wade. I was a junior in high school in California at the time, but I remember the decision coming down. That fateful, awful ruling has haunted society every day since then — for forty years and counting. Not only have over 50 million innocent babies been killed in their own mother's womb, but the decision did incalculable damage to the conscience of our culture.
By devaluing life among the pre-born, the Supreme Court gave tremendous momentum to those who (in the name of "choice" and "dignity" mind you) would "assist" in taking the inconvenient life of the disabled and the infirm, would sanction the killing of a baby because she had the misfortune to be the "wrong" gender, and would advocate medical "progress" through the destruction of human embryos.
Knowing what you know today, what if you could roll back the clock to before that infamous decision in Roe? What would you do if you could go back in time?
That's where we are right now — it's 1973 for marriage. Only now, we know what the consequences will be if we redefine marriage. We've already seen glimpses of the liberty that will be lost, the attacks against churches, the convicting of pastors, the lawsuits against small businesses and the sanctions against individuals of faith. We know that once marriage is redefined, there is no room in the public square for anyone with a biblical, scriptural view of marriage as God defined it to act on that belief. And we know that once marriage is decreed to be genderless, school children will be taught that male/male and female/female "marriages" are perfectly appropriate, no matter what the children are taught at home or in church. In fact, they'll be informed that to think otherwise is bigotry and discrimination.
The case that could be the Roe v Wade of marriage is the Proposition 8 case, Perry v Hollingsworth. The same-sex plaintiffs in the Perry case are arguing that Proposition 8 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is unconstitutional. Moreover, they say that same-sex couples have an absolute right under the federal constitution to marry — in California and, by extension, throughout the US.
This case is being argued in the Supreme Court on March 26. NOM's staff is working night and day to organize and manage all the logistics of the March for Marriage which will happen right in front of the Court just as they are hearing argument in the case. It's an unbelievable amount of work. Thousands of people have said they want to come, and their presence could make a real difference.
But here's the problem: We still have a pressing need to rent more buses and we need to give people who can't attend a way to show their support by marching virtually, online.
The good news is that we're making real progress. Last week we were able to procure funding for a great number of buses... but we have so many more requests.
Remember, every donation that you make now will be matched by a generous donor, so there's never been a better opportunity to give, or a more important time to show your generosity.
Think again about the dreadful consequences of the Roe v Wade case. The similarities are eerie when you compare the situation with Roe to what's happening with marriage and the Perry case today. Back when I was in high school and Roe was pending before the court, a few states had legalized abortion, but many remained solidly pro-life. There was a rousing national debate going on in the democratic process about when life began, whether the baby (fetus) had any legal rights, and whether voters and lawmakers in states should be trusted to make their own decisions on this life and death issue.
The U. S. Supreme Court effectively ended the democratic process and substituted their horribly flawed judgment for the views of the American people. They thought they'd settle the question of abortion once and for all. Instead, they set the country onto a course of political turmoil and division that rages as fiercely today as it did back in 1973.
That's exactly what will happen if the Supreme Court were to impose gay "marriage" on the nation and find that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to same-sex "marriage" even when lawmakers and voters have decided otherwise.
Right now a handful of states allow gay "marriage" while the vast majority do not. Just like abortion in the 1970s, the issue of marriage is being hotly discussed and debated throughout the nation, and is very much being engaged in the democratic process. It's critical that the U. S. Supreme Court not repeat their terrible error of judgment with abortion and decide to take the issue of marriage out of the hands of the people and remove it from the democratic process.
If our opponents get their way, that's exactly what will happen.
If you could go back to 1973, would you participate in a march to save society from the scourge of abortion? Would you go to Washington to show the Supreme Court that you are one of a multitude of people who are demanding that they not use our constitution to create a great moral and civic wrong?
We have thousands of people who want to march for marriage and to take concrete steps to show that marriage matters to them, and it matters to the nation. But we need your financial assistance to get these people on buses, in front of the Supreme Court and be provided the tools to show their support to friends, colleagues, neighbors and family.
If we lose the Perry case, or the companion Windsor v United States case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the damage to the country will be severe. Soon, people of faith who believe in marriage as God designed it will be targeted for punishment. Then the government will use all its power to indoctrinate children into accepting this new view of marriage as a genderless institution that exists for the pleasure and satisfaction of adults. Over time, marriage will lose its meaning, and society will lose the one institution we have that is designed to connect parents to children.
Children are the ultimate casualty of the same-sex "marriage" regime. Moms and dads will be devalued, and their unique contributions to child rearing will be denied and tossed aside by a society bent on satisfying the demands of a powerful political constituency. No matter how much a woman loves her children, she cannot be their father, nor can a man be their mother. Children need the love of both a mom and a dad, yet same-sex marriage intentionally denies a child the love of either her mother or her father.
We have just a few short weeks left to do our best to prevent this outcome. NOM and its dedicated staff are working feverishly, doing everything in their power to make the March for Marriage a success. But we need your help, today, to rent more buses and deploy more tools to show the Supreme Court that the vast majority of Americans want to preserve marriage and to leave it to voters and lawmakers, not judges, to decide this critical issue.
It's 1973 for marriage. Will you stand up and be counted by helping us prevail? We'll never get this time back. Please act today.
In faith and love,
Frank Schubert
National Political Director
National Organization for Marriage
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