Once again, you have helped us achieve a great victory for marriage – this time an important battle with some Republican elites in Washington who wanted to distance the GOP from their historic strong position that marriage is and can only be between one man and one woman.

As we reported to you a few weeks back, some liberal RINOs and their staffs, had urged keeping social issues, including marriage, out of the Republican “Pledge to America.” We knew this was a mistake – it was wrong as a matter of public policy, and it was wrong politically. Support for marriage is a winning issue for any candidate, as has been proven time and time again in elections across America.

NOM joined with other pro-family groups and asked you to speak your mind to the Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives – and boy did you! So many emails were received that reportedly an email server crashed!

But here’s the good news: the “Pledge to America”” released today includes a strong commitment to traditional marriage as a core, foundational value of American society. It also includes a condemnation of activist judges, like San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker, who have taken it upon themselves to attempt to redefine American values to suit their own view of how our country to should operate.  Here are excerpts from the document http://pledge.gop.gov/:

“An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down long-standing laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people.”

***

“We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.”

Please take a moment to write to House Republican Leader John Boehner to thank him for including marriage in the “Pledge to America.”

Sincerely,

Brian S. Brown
President

The Sept. 24 NYT is suggesting that the Iowa retention elections cannot be used only to eliminate “unfit judges.” Of course a judge who commits a felony or takes a bribe can be removed from office by other means. What is the point of an election if the New York Times tells Iowa voters they are not allowed to exercise their own judgment?  To the NYT, the idea the Iowa Constitution requires same-sex marriage is not an outrageous judicial abuse of power.  But the voters of Iowa are entitled to their own opinion.  The Iowa Constitution includes judicial retention elections, which gives voters a say over who will judge them and the people's constitution. NOMs Brian Brown speaks out:

From the NYT:

“Brian S. Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which has spent $230,000 on television ads criticizing the Iowa judges, said he understood that removing the three judges would not change the same-sex marriage ruling. (It was a unanimous ruling by the state’s seven justices.) But Mr. Brown said he hoped the judges’ ouster would help prevent similar rulings elsewhere by making judges around the nation aware that their jobs are on the line.

“It sends a powerful message,” he said, “That if justices go outside the bounds of their oaths, if the justices go outside the bounds of the U.S. and state constitutions they’re going to be held accountable.”

Bob Vander Plaats, who made opposition to same-sex marriage a centerpiece of his unsuccessful run for governor in Iowa, is leading the ouster campaign on behalf of the political arm of the American Family Association, a conservative Christian organization based in Tupelo, Miss.

“My bigger fear isn’t about injecting politics into judicial retention elections. The bigger fear is that we don’t hold them in check,” he said, warning that gun and property rights could be at risk.”

West Virginia GOP Senate Nominee John Raese has just endorsed a Federal Marriage Amendment. Will Gov. Manchin agree, or will he let the surging GOP candidate in this traditionally Democratic state open ground on the marriage issue?  Polls show West Virginians strongly oppose same-sex marriage.  The latest PPP poll shows GOP nominee John Raese leading Gov. Manchin for the first time by 3 points, 46 to 43.

Blogger Thomas Peters (American Papist) exposes “the latest in a long string of Catholyc astroturf groups.”  Peters’ reveals that Catholic for Equality, “were intentionally created as a front group by the blatantly anti-Catholic homosexual-activist group (the largest in the nation, in fact): The Human Rights Campaign.”  Quoting an email exchange he had with a board member of this new group as proof of their manufactured nature, Peters goes on to point out that “the leadership and staff of Catholics for Equality reveals that at least three of the members have explicit ties with the Human Rights Campaign.”

The blog posting also quotes Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the military archdiocese who points out: “that according to canon law a group may call itself Catholic if it has been approved by a bishop or recognized by the Holy See in some manner. ‘It is doubtful that the group in question has such approval. Therefore, it cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic.’”

Read more here.