WASHINGTON (ABP) — As the Senate again geared up for an election-year vote on a gay-marriage ban June 5, religious leaders both praised and condemned President Bush for his renewed support.
Bush, responding to pressure from conservative leaders who questioned the White House's commitment to banning gay marriage, held a press conference with religious leaders to tout his support for a proposed ban. The so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment” — a slightly altered version of the Federal Marriage Amendment senators defeated in 2004 — could come up for a Senate vote as early as June 7.
“I call on the Congress to pass this amendment, send it to the states for ratification so we can take this issue out of the hands of over-reaching judges and put it back where it belongs — in the hands of the American people,” Bush said, in a speech at an event near the White House. It included several conservative Catholic and evangelical Protestant leaders, including Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch and Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that the state's marriage policies unconstitutionally discriminated against same-sex couples, conservative leaders have pushed for a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage. They have claimed that “activist” judges at the state and federal level threaten to force same-sex marriage on an unwilling populace.
While most legal observers believe the federal Supreme Court is far from recognizing a right to gay marriage in the Constitution, the highest courts in several states are currently considering lawsuits similar to the one that precipitated the Massachusetts decision.
“Some argue that defining marriage should be left to the states,” Bush said. “The fact is, state legislatures are trying to address this issue. But across the country, they are being thwarted by activist judges who are overturning the expressed will of their people. And these court decisions can have an impact on our whole nation.”
Critics of the amendment argue it would actually take the question away from state legislatures — such as California's and Connecticut's — that have come close to approving same-sex marriage without any legal pressure.
“I believe that former Sen. Barry Goldwater said it comprehensively and succinctly when he said, 'Government ought to be kept off our backs, out of our pocketbooks and out of our bedrooms' — and that this is a matter which ought to be left to the states, and the states are taking care of it,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).
Democrats, gay-rights groups and religious progressives have said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) scheduled the vote as a way to shore up the Republican Party's conservative base in time for the midterm congressional elections in November. The amendment is almost certain to fail in the Senate, where it would need to be approved by a two-thirds majority.
The last time the chamber took up the issue — in June of 2004 — a similar proposal died on a procedural vote after failing to gain even a simple majority. That year, however, conservatives credited several state ballot issues on banning gay marriage with boosting Republican turnout in the presidential and congressional elections.
Now, Bush's poll numbers are at near-historic lows, and Republicans run the risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress in November.
At a Washington press conference hosted earlier on June 5 by the Clergy For Fairness coalition, a group of moderate and progressive religious leaders condemned Bush and Frist for re-focusing attention on gay marriage.
“We must not allow those who concoct political strategies during an election season to polarize the public and undermine the Constitution,” said Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists. “It is unjust — indeed, unthinkable — that two-thirds of the Congress would engage in such demagoguery as represented in this despicable amendment.”
Robert Hardies, pastor of Washington's All Souls Church, went further. “There isn't anyone here naïve enough to believe that the introduction of this legislation in two successive election cycles is anything other than an attempt to gain” the support of wavering conservative voters, he said. “You just don't treat people this way; you don't demonize them for your own political gain. That is the very definition of sin.”
Several prominent conservative religious leaders had begun to criticize the White House for what they perceived as mixed messages on gay marriage. In recent months, Vice President Dick Cheney and his lesbian daughter, Mary, have made clear their opposition to the amendment. Likewise, some gay-rights supporters hailed recent comments by first lady Laura Bush in which she seemed to question the way the amendment was being used.
The White House continued to inspire questions about its commitment to the issue June 5, holding Bush's speech in an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building instead of in the more prominent White House Rose Garden, where some participants were told initially that it would be held. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, in his regular June 5 press briefing also declined to say if Bush or his aides would actively lobby senators to vote for the ban.
But some of the conservative leaders who pushed Bush to reinforce his conservative credentials on the issue seemed pleased with Bush's words June 5, as well similar comments during his June 3 weekly radio address. Tony Perkins, head of the Washington-based Family Research Council, titled the June 5 edition of his e-mail newsletter “Well Said, Mr. President!” and said “the president's leadership on this issue is most welcome.”
The proposal is S.J. Res. 1. A House version is also expected.
-30-