Prevent wrongs from becoming "rights"

By Paul Weyrich

There will be a vote next month on legislation vital to the preservation of the American family as we know it. Don't be caught unaware and unprepared! Your willingness to speak up — or stay silent — may very well determine what happens.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment next month.

Too few calls, too few letters and too few faxes are coming into the offices of Members of the United States Senate urging them to stand firm in defense of marriage between a man and a woman.

That's why too many of the Senators who should now be strong supporters of the Federal Marriage Amendment are still in the "uncommitted" column.

A myth has developed in Washington that many grassroots conservatives just do not care what happens to the concept of marriage between a man and a woman. I tell those who think this that they are wrong. Social conservatives together with black pastors have made clear to state legislatures how strongly we care that marriage must remain solely a covenant between a man and a woman. They heard your thoughts expressed clearly and unmistakably. State legislatures have responded to the will of the people.

Now, the United States Senate has to be sent the same message.

What is at stake? Only the kind of society your children and grandchildren will come to inherit.

Just look at Norway and Sweden where homosexual "marriage" is essentially legal and traditional marriage as an institution is dying. Stanley Kurtz wrote earlier this year in The Weekly Standard: "Instead of encouraging a society-wide return to marriage, Scandinavian gay marriage has driven home the message that marriage itself is outdated, and that virtually any family form, including out-of-wedlock parenthood, is acceptable."

Out-of-wedlock births have become the majority in Sweden and Norway. At the end of the 1990s, at least half the births in Norway and over half in Sweden were out-of-wedlock.

If homosexual "marriage" becomes legal in America, that means is the state will almost certainly have to step in if the child's parent falls ill, loses their job, or simply is unable to work and provide for their child.

It means that children are being raised in fractured families; sometimes not even knowing who is their other parent.

Children in our own country have suffered badly enough because of no-fault divorce. They have suffered because our welfare system rewarded single-parent families at the expense of the traditional family. Now, despite the progress we have made in reforming our welfare system and in promoting abstinence until marriage education, the acceptance and legalization of same-sex marriage stands to be the final nail in the coffin for marriage as a societal institution.

If homosexual "marriage" becomes legal, it will be our children and grandchildren who pay the price. A growing constituency of homosexuals will work to undo welfare reform. They will work to make sure the tax system does not recognize the importance of the traditional family to our society. They will work to ensure no-fault divorce remains on the books because same sex marriages are much less stable. They will work to make homosexual sex part of sex education in public schools. They will ridicule abstinence until marriage and make it Politically Correct to do so. They don't believe in abstinence. They don't believe in the Bible or its clear instructions that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman. There is simply no way America can remain a strong, self-reliant, God-fearing country and have states recognize homosexuals as being "married."

You will make the difference between wrongs being made into rights in our society or ensuring that marriage remains a covenant between a man and a woman with your long-term resolve to fight on behalf of what is undeniably right.

Remember: the drive to enact a Federal Marriage Amendment will not achieve victory overnight. But phone call after phone call, fax after fax, letter after letter can help bring us closer to the day in which the United States Senate refers the Federal Marriage Amendment to the States. There, we will have new battles to fight. But fortified with the knowledge that we are fighting for what is right, we can and will prevail.

Most parents and grandparents want to bequeath the things they have earned and inherited to their children and grandchildren. It may be something as simple as a treasured pocket watch...a valued book... a quilt. They want to pass on a legacy.

What kind of world you would like your children and grandchildren to inherit? Do you want it to be one in which there are no permanent values, no certainties? Where absolutely anything goes because homosexual "marriage" will be legal? Or do you want one in which the Ten Commandments are honored...where real families — mother, father and their children — are recognized and respected for being essential to the well being of society?

I'm betting your answer is the latter.

It's not enough to just say "yes" to my question. You have the power to help determine what kind of legacy you bequeath your children and grandchildren. You've got to let your United States Senators know your thoughts. You've got to make sure your friends and neighbors do too.

When people understand this issue and the importance of the Federal Marriage Amendment, they will take action. One of the best things that has come out of this fight is the new friends we have made. A group of black ministers has joined forces with the Arlington Group, the conservative and religious organizations that are fighting to have the Senate refer the Federal Marriage Amendment to the states. The ministers know how important it is to protect the institution of marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman.

If that's not enough reason to take action to let Washington know your viewpoint on the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment, then I'd like to know: what will it take? Silence is simply unacceptable!

See: Stanley Kurtz' "The End of Marriage in Scandinavia"

© Paul Weyrich