Dear Marriage Supporter,

Today is a historic day by any measure.

NOM joins the nation in extending our best wishes and prayers to President Barack Obama as he takes the oath of office for a second term as President of these United States of America. We hope and pray that President Obama is able in his second term to bring America together, to heal the divisions that exist in our nation, and to put our country on a firmer path to recovery and well-being for American families. We pray as well for the president's family and thank them for accepting the sacrifices that public service imposes on men and women who pursue it.

Today is also the day that we celebrate the birth of one of our great national leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King is rightly known as one of the greatest civil rights leaders in our nation's history, a cause he paid for with his life.

It is fitting that President Obama today takes the oath of office on two bibles — one belonging to Abraham Lincoln, and the other to Dr. King.

But as I reflect on the America we live in today and the society we are building for my eight children, I can't help but be concerned. Too many of our people live in poverty. They are impoverished not only by unemployment and the throes of a struggling economy, but by cultural forces that rob people of their inherent, God-given dignity, and entice them through false prophets and by false promises, often peddled in the guise of providing pleasure but that ultimately bring nothing but sadness and even despair.

Last November during the same election that sent President Obama to a second term, three states allowed marriage to be redefined with the president's misguided encouragement. If this is the path we're on, and it's not a good one. The President bears considerable responsibility for this as a result of his abandonment of the eternal truth of the uniqueness of the marriage relationship.

Yet as I watch the pageantry of a presidential inauguration I am reminded of the vast power and potential of our country to be a tremendous force for good.

How do we help America get on a better path, one that uplifts families, that inspires future generations to greatness?

Very simply, I think we need to call our nation to good — to pursue law and policies that promote social good and are based on moral truths.

I think one key is in the words of Dr. King, set forth so articulately in the spring of 1963 while sitting in jail in Birmingham, Alabama. King's Letter From Birmingham Jail called the nation to understand that there are just laws, and unjust ones. Dr. King said, "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law."

Dr. King went on note that segregation laws were plainly unjust: "All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority."

Marriage is the very type of relationship that Dr. King would no doubt have recognized as just, rooted as it is in the moral law, observed over thousands of years as an eternal law, in perfect harmony with the law of God. It is a profoundly just institution that brings men and women together and provides children with the best opportunity to be raised by a mother and a father.

So many of our laws and policies today are out of harmony with natural law and nature's God. The killing of the preborn innocent in the name of privacy; the euthanizing of the infirm in the name of compassion; the destruction of embryonic humans in the name of advancement; the protection of pornography purveyors and the merchants of violence in Hollywood and the video game industry in the name of free speech; and the restructuring of instutions like marriage to provide emotional satisfaction to politically powerful adults, even as they strip from the law the right of children to a mother and father.

No, indeed, we as a nation are not on a good path.

But it is not too late to change direction and to choose a better path. If we are willing to keep Dr. King's admonition in mind to pursue policies that are just, that are in harmony with eternal, natural and moral law, then we can reclaim America and restore our future.

NOM is committed to working with all policymakers, legislators, judges and officials — President Obama included — to support policies that strengthen marriage and thereby uplift American families, protect children and advance the common good. That is our commitment to the nation, and that is our promise to you.

On this historic day, may God continue to richly bless this country, her elected and appointed officials, and the men and women who serve under her flag.