Lawlessness Spreads From California...
Dear Marriage Supporter,
It's lawless — but it's executed by courts, politicians, and legal officials being pushed by powerful gay marriage activists to abandon their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and the law. In the eyes of our opponents, and increasingly among their allies, the right of homosexuals to "marry" trumps everything else — including the rule of law!
In California, state officials beholden to gay marriage activists are ordering all marriage clerks to ignore Prop 8 — despite the fact the California state constitution requires officials to uphold laws on the books until they are overturned by an appellate court. Despite what the media wants you to believe, Prop 8 has NOT been overturned in this manner.
These are the same politicians who refused to defend Proposition 8, which resulted in a homosexual judge in San Francisco invalidating it — something the US Supreme Court tragically allowed to stand when they refused to hear the appeal of the measure. A San Diego county clerk responsible for issuing marriage licenses understandably wants some direction on what the law requires of him, yet he's being treated like a criminal by the very people who are mocking the state constitution. Because he's asking for a clear direction from the state's highest court — he's treated like an outlaw.
...to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Who Knows Where Next?
In Pennsylvania, Montgomery County's Register of Wills (the person who issues marriage licenses) suddenly decided he can ignore Pennsylvania law and give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The guy claims he did it only after reading Justice Kennedy's opinion in the Windsor case striking down part of the federal DOMA law, and concluded that gay couples should have the right to marry even though Pennsylvania law defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Kudos to the Office of General Counsel for the Governor for insisting "Individual elected officials cannot pick and choose which laws to enforce," as their press secretary Nils Hagen-Frederiksen wrote in a released statement. "All officials are constitutionally required to administer and enforce the laws that are enacted by the Legislature."
In Ohio, a federal judge intervened to order state officials to ignore the state's marriage law and treat a same-sex couple as married when completing vital records. Ohio voters amended their Constitution in 2004 to protect marriage by an overwhelming majority, but this judge has chosen to be a law unto himself and trample on the will of the people.
New cases are being added to the docket all the time — North Carolina's marriage amendment, passed a year ago by 61 percent of the voters is now under judicial attack. But so are the laws of over a dozen states, including Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey and even Arkansas.
I will not mislead you: we are in the middle of an orchestrated takedown of marriage by gay activists and their allies in power, one unconcerned with the rule of law, or respect for those of us who believe now, yesterday and tomorrow that marriage is the union of male and female, oriented towards the good of new life, and necessary for the protection of children.
NOM'S Schubert: "The Truth of Marriage Will Prevail"
Frank Schubert, one of the heroes in enacting of Prop 8 and NOM's national political director, took a few weeks to respond to all the constant requests for how he feels about the Court's refusal to defend the rights of the 7 million voters who enacted Prop 8.
He wrote this week in Public Discourse,
"It's only natural for people to want to know how I feel about the outcome, not only from a policy perspective but also from a personal perspective. After all, I put my heart into managing (and winning) the Prop 8 campaign in 2008, and since then have spent much of my professional career working on preserving marriage throughout the nation.
Here's how I feel.
I feel like we were cheated. Just like I felt as a kid watching the bad guy put a sleeper hold on his opponent [in a pro wrestling match], or hitting him below the belt or with the brass knuckles while the referee had his back turned, so have the legal system and politicians cold-cocked the people of California — seven million of whom went to the polls to lawfully enact Prop 8. Only this time, I realize there's not likely to be a rematch. The cheaters won.
I feel like the rule of law has been shredded, and conniving politicians have been rewarded for ignoring their sworn oath of office. Public confidence in the judicial system has been dealt a severe blow. Supporters of same-sex "marriage" may be happy with the result today, but hold on until the tables are turned and a conservative governor and attorney general refuse to defend a law they don't personally support, and there's nobody left with standing to defend it....
I feel like a broadside has ripped a great hole in the initiative and referendum process itself. I have managed nearly forty statewide ballot initiative campaigns in my career. The initiative process is one of the few viable ways to get a recalcitrant government to respond to legitimate issues that are not being addressed by the legislature or the state administration. By its nature, citizens are often pushing a law that is opposed by those in power.
Now those very people in power — the governor and attorney general — have been given a pocket veto over the initiative process itself. They can invalidate any measure they don't personally support simply by refusing to defend it in federal court."
When like you and me and Frank, you put your heart and soul in defending what you believe is good, using the God-given rights guaranteed in our Constitution — and then watching one arrogant Justice take away your rights — of course you feel cheated.
But Frank, a great man, goes on:
"I think about people like Scott Eckern, a distinguished musical producer, who was forced to resign from the California Musical Theater in Sacramento over his $1,000 contribution in support of Prop 8. I think about Marjorie Christofferson, a then-67-year-old employee at her family-owned Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, who was forced to take a leave from the business over donating a mere $100 to our campaign.
...And I think about the 250,000 volunteers in our campaign who walked precincts, knocked on doors, and manned phone banks, including Jose Nunez, a proud immigrant and newly sworn-in US citizen, who was physically assaulted by a Prop 8 opponent while waiting to distribute signs outside his Catholic church.
All of these people paid a tremendous price. They, and the voters, deserved better than to be left undefended before the legal system, abandoned by those sworn to defend them, ignored by judges determined to impose a particular result, and then orphaned by the Supreme Court as the great referee pretended not to see all the nefarious activity going on with the case right in front of them."
Justice has not been done.
"The decisions worry me," writes Frank, "I am actually less worried about the damage done to the institution of marriage than I am about the damage done to the body politic."
He's right when he says, "Marriage is an eternal truth, and a profound good. Its value to society is inestimable. No government, judge, or politician has the power to change the inherent nature of marriage. In the end, the truth of marriage will prevail, even if the law decides to abandon it for a time."
But our democracy he points out is much more fragile. "When the votes of millions of people are ignored by the elites in government, when politicians can ignore their oath of office and assume for themselves extra-constitutional authority, when judges can ignore their own internal conflicts and impose their own political views on an issue in direct contravention of the expressed desires of the people, and when the Supreme Court can turn a blind eye to the matter and let the politicians and judges get away with it, public confidence in government is seriously, and perhaps permanently, eroded."
No Regrets
"Some of my friends wonder if I regret taking on Prop 8, and my subsequent work in support of marriage, life, and religious liberty. The answer is no, not for a minute. I've never regretted standing for the truth, and I don't regret it now. I'm not worried in the least about any impact on me, and I'll continue to work on behalf of these critical issues. The answer to those who ask how I am doing is simply this: worry not for me, worry for thee."
Frank has no regrets and neither do I. We cannot walk away from the fight, because the fight is for our freedom, and for truth.
The first battle is in our own hearts and minds; the first fight is the spiritual battle: will we give up and acquiesce to this radical new definition of marriage and the lawlessness promoting it? Or will we dig down and find the courage to fight for what is right?
One thing I know: no man or woman can fight this fight alone. We must fight together, in love, for the truth about marriage, and the truth about democracy and human rights.
The Corruption in Law and Government Continues to Spread.
The latest news from the IRS scandal is that it was not rogue Ohio agents responsible for the politicization of the IRS. President Obama appoints the general counsel to the IRS — and agents were told to send all cases to his office for review. Did the Obama Administration play a role in the IRS giving our confidential tax return to the Human Rights Campaign (whose president was a Co-Chair of the Obama campaign), which promptly and illegally disclosed the identity of numerous NOM donors? It's time for people to be subpoenaed to testify before Congress, and put under oath so that we can get to the bottom of this scandal.
When it comes to gay marriage, they want not only their victory, they want your submission — the rule of law be damned.
The battles will continue, but let's be clear — what we're fighting for is much greater than the definition of marriage. We're fighting not only for the right to believe in the truth of God's teaching, but to act on that truth in the public square without fear of governmental reprisal. For if we lose that right, we've lost everything — liberty, independence, and eventually the nation itself.
This week I have one urgent action request to make of you my friend to take a stand against lawlessness and corruption:
Call your Congressman and tell him or her to support HR2565, the Stop IRS ACT. Click here to learn more and to contact your elected officials.
Together we cannot stand by while our government is corrupted, our laws ignored, our rights taken away.
Together we will not agree to go quietly — to be stigmatized, marginalized or repressed.
God willing, they will not succeed in their goal of silencing us, taking away our rights, and remaking America in their own image.
God bless you and thank you, and may God bless our beloved America.
They are ordinary parishioners, neighbors down the street, co-workers in the elevator who steadfastly believe that marriage is meant solely for a man and a woman.
Ronald L’Heureux, a cofounder of the Faith Alliance to Preserve the Sanctity of Marriage as Defined by God, brought a petition and complaint to the court on Tuesday morning and sought a temporary restraining order to stop the law from taking effect. Judge Daniel A. Procaccini denied the request, saying L’Heureux had fallen “far short” of the criteria needed to obtain a temporary restraining order, said court spokesman Craig Berke.
Ministers warned backbenchers that their careers would be ruined if they did not support gay marriage, it was claimed last night.
Ted Cruz looked to other countries for examples, but he easily could have cited a growing number of incidents in the United States.
In anticipation of a ruling overturning Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage, Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown is working with the State Registrar's office to amend Michigan's marriage license.
