Dear Marriage Supporter,

Scandal is building over the release of one of NOM's confidential tax documents. The release of this document is due to either an IRS employee leak, someone hacking into IRS systems, or someone illegally impersonating a NOM official to obtain this confidential information—information then retailed to the public by the Human Rights Campaign and the Huffington Post.

Let me reiterate the main point: The organization headed by President Obama's campaign co-chair knowingly retailed illegally-obtained information from the IRS—that's a felony. They did so in order to try to punish a political opponent. That's an outrage.

As I write, the Huffington Post has yet to acknowledge their potential civil and criminal liability in retailing illegally-obtained and federally-protected IRS information.

HRC acknowledged the seriousness of the situation by scrubbing every mention of the illegally-obtained 990 from its website, after NOM's lawyers demanded it do so. It's now claiming another source for the non-story it released about Gov. Romney's 2008 donation to NOM, which had already been reported in the press at the time.

But we have the evidence of what they actually said and did.

HRC has been funding people to go after NOM's donors in an explicit, open way, which contributes to the likelihood that they knowingly participated in this act.

To preface the growing coverage of this felony committed against decency and fair play, let me tell you the story of another such attempted leak back in 2009.

This story is not one I have ever told publicly.

Back in 2009, during the fight to stop the redefinition of marriage in Maine via referendum, someone released confidential information to the pro-gay-marriage camp in Maine. This group, though opposed to what you and I believe, recognized a moral wrong and a potential crime.

They forwarded the information to the pro-marriage campaign, acknowledging they ought not to have been in receipt of it, and promised that no copies had been retained. They did the right thing.

That's what a law-abiding organization does when its staff recognizes that someone is trying to commit a crime by releasing information it has no right to have.

We have sent a letter to the Treasury Department demanding an investigation. The tax returns put up on HRC's website contained special codes that only come from the IRS; the tax return we filed does not have that code on it. That's something which happens only once a return is in the hands of the IRS. That's how we know it was obtained from the IRS.
We're pleased to report that, according to the Daily Caller, the IRS is taking the allegations "very seriously."

Here's WABC's talk show host Mark Levin, calling it for what it is: "a felony."

Here's our Next Gen leader, Thomas Peters, on the Christian Broadcasting Network:

As Breitbart's Big Government reported:

"If something this obvious had happened to a liberal organization, you can bet the mainstream media would be all over it. But being a conservative, pro-traditional-marriage group, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has been afforded no such luxury. ...

"A crime appears to have been committed, and an investigation is indeed in order. That this matter is not getting the attention it deserves is testament, yet again, to the left-wing bias of the mainstream media.

"As NOM President Brian Brown said in a statement last week: 'It is shocking that a political ally of President Obama's would come to possess and then publicly release a confidential tax return that came directly from the Internal Revenue Service.'"

Here's Maggie Gallagher taking the case for fairness to the media:

Lawyers for Crystal Dixon are in court this week at the Sixth Circuit, arguing that "no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion."

Crystal Dixon was dismissed as an administrator from the University of Toledo in Ohio solely for writing a letter to the editor to a local paper objecting to homosexuality and, in particular, to the "race analogy" comparing sexual orientation with race and gay rights with the battle for civil rights for African-Americans.

No major pro-gay-marriage organization has come forward to condemn the firing of Crystal Dixon or to suggest that gay rights do not require such brutal oppression of the free speech rights of people like Crystal. That tells you a lot about where this movement is headed.

I'm grateful to every American, whatever their creed or color, willing to stand up for marriage. But this week I have to express special gratitude to Bishop Harry Jackson.

He published an amazing op-ed in The Blaze, saying:

The largest roadblock to the nationwide redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples is the group of people perhaps least ashamed to voice their convictions in the matter: black Christians. In a pathetic effort to eradicate this roadblock, lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual (LGBT) activists have accused traditional marriage advocates of "creating" a division between minority Christian leaders and the homosexual community.

The truth is, few issues in American history have brought together more people from vastly different political and racial backgrounds than the fight to preserve traditional marriage. African-Americans have joined with people of all races and creeds to resist the radical effort of activists to redefine marriage and family. As a result new heroes are emerging with the courage of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s. ...

In the midst of this fight, LGBT activists have created a mythology to try to explain the fierce minority opposition to their agenda. Primary among these myths is the idea that the National Organization for Marriage, with whom I and many African Americans have been proud to stand, is responsible for dividing racial minorities against the gay community. Nothing could be further from the truth. NOM has instead provided a national platform for racial minorities to voice their heartfelt outrage at an agenda that is trying to hijack the moral authority of the Civil Rights struggle.

But Bishop Jackson also—and this is above and beyond the call—sent out a fundraising letter asking black, white and Latino Americans to stand with NOM as we are under attack:

For three years, I have stood shoulder to shoulder with Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage, fighting to protect marriage in Maryland and in our nation's capital.

Together—for the first time in Maryland—we have built a true rainbow coalition of Blacks, Latinos and whites, Republicans and Democrats, Catholics, evangelicals, Mormons and Jews, all working together to protect and preserve marriage. It's a new phase in the battle for marriage—and critical as we head toward a referendum this fall.

The National Organization for Marriage has done so much to protect marriage, not only in Maryland, but in similar battles all across the country.

It's no wonder groups like the Human Rights Campaign and The New York Times are trying to tear our coalition apart.

My answer? Not a chance!

The ugly insinuations and outright lies I have seen over the past two weeks are nothing short of reprehensible. They're trying to create the impression that NOM is exploiting racial division—using Blacks and Hispanics to further its political agenda.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Same-sex marriage isn't about civil rights. It's about our civil responsibilities. As Americans and as people of faith, we have a duty to stand up, engage, and speak the truth about marriage. And when we all stand in unity, no one can stop us.

Same-sex marriage supporters have it all backward. It is the Democratic Party elites and gay marriage leaders that are pushing an agenda of division.

Politically, especially for Republicans, the negative repercussions of abandoning core convictions and voting for gay marriage are becoming ever more clear.

In New Hampshire, Republican legislators who voted against a bill to repeal gay marriage are reacting with great upset to an ad NOM just ran telling the truth:

"NOM-NH Runs Ad Slamming GOP Legislators for Gay Marriage Vote," as the New Hampshire Journal reports.

NOM's goal, as I made clear last week, is not to use gay marriage as a wedge issue to elect Republicans, but to actually protect marriage in law and culture—whether that requires electing Republicans, electing Democrats, or making sure those who betray marriage hear from their constituents in both parties.

The first heads to fall were Democrats in Brooklyn like David Weprin.

But we will take the case for protecting marriage to politicians in both parties.

New York State Sen. Jim Alesi, one of the four Republicans who betrayed their campaign promises and voted for gay marriage, is feeling the heat.

Curt Smith writes in MPNNow,

In 2010, [Sen. Alesi] was reelected vowing to support traditional marriage. In spring 2011, neither apologizing nor explaining, Alesi helped the Republican-controlled Senate make New York only the sixth state to let gay and lesbian couples wed, changing the historical definition of marriage between one men and one woman.

A 2009 photo shows him, head in hands, voting against same-sex wedlock, saying "I live in a political world. It's not about courage." Deeming his district increasingly liberal, Alesi changed his vote—cravenly, not courageously. The National Organization for Marriage scored his "tearing up the...contract with voters who trusted" him. In response, Alesi mocked old friends, saying "I have new friends now." Incredibly, he never considered that the old friends might laugh last."

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Alesi, who was boasting about how many new friends his gay marriage vote gained him, is now seriously concerned about a well-funded primary challenge:

"If there's some kind of an insinuation that money guided the vote, I can tell you that we're never going to match funding that National Organization for Marriage will spend," Mr. Alesi said, referring to an anti-same-sex marriage group. "Most of us will be wiped out financially after Republican primaries."

As Thomas Peters pointed out, this is quite a different tune from when he told local press last year that he was running for reelection to prove "you can vote for [same-sex marriage] as a Republican and you can survive."

Kudos as well to former Governor and Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, who used his Baltimore Sun column this Sunday to predict, "Maryland will reject same-sex marriage."

"Gays deserve respect," he affirmed as we do, "but not the right to redefine society's most important institution."

He predicts that the referendum to overturn gay marriage in Maryland will succeed as "a coalition of Catholics, African-Americans, Hispanics and conservatives from both sides of the aisle send the measure to a decisive defeat. (Such a result would make Maryland the 32nd state to defeat a gay marriage referendum.)"

He points to the victories for gay rights he personally championed as a Maryland Republican and the heat he took for it, and nonetheless stands in favor of marriage:

"Many of us draw the line at marriage, however. We ask the state to defend this fundamentally important (albeit flawed) institution—not redefine it down to fit the demand of an influential interest group. Indeed, one redefinition will most assuredly beget additional redefinitions: Why not a civil right to more than one spouse? Where does one draw the line once the traditional threshold is crossed?

Traditional marriage is integral to our Judeo-Christian heritage. It is the institution most adept at the business of raising children. For many opponents, it's not a civil rights issue. It's about a foundational institution that deserves this ultimate protection."

A final word of prayer and gratitude. Prison Fellowship has released word that Chuck Colson may be on his deathbed, about to be gathered to the Lord.

He fell ill at a Spiral of Silence conference (at which both Maggie Gallagher and Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse spoke) dedicated to calling Christians to speak for life, for marriage, and for religious liberty.

I ask for your prayers for him and his family, and offer my own heartfelt ones.

The fight continues. We each have a part to play.

Praise be to God.