Ecumenical group’s pro-marriage list includes 2,500 signatures
The Layman Online, July 13, 2004
WASHINGTON – The Association for Church Renewal (ACR), an ecumenical group of leaders from more than 30 mainline church renewal organizations, presented a list of more than 2,500 signatures in support of the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to leaders in both houses of Congress, as well as to White House officials, on Monday, July 12.
The signers of the petition are leaders and others significantly active in the renewal movement within their particular denominations. The distribution of these names is intended to coincide with the beginning of the floor debate on the issue in the U. S. Senate. Senators are expected to vote on the measure this week.
The signers represent a broad cross-section of Christian traditions, encompassing all major denominational groups. Forty-seven states are represented, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
“This is just a small sample of the millions of individuals in our churches who believe that traditional marriage is worth defending,” said Parker Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications. “Every day I hear from Presbyterians who are disturbed by statements being made by some church leaders on the subject of marriage,” he said. “This petition shows that these leaders do not speak for the people they purport to represent.”
“I think the evidence is pretty clear that the best environment to raise children is with both a mother and a father,” said ACR Chairman James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News, a group seeking reform within the United Methodist Church. “Future generations will be grateful that there were those who were willing to stand up for the traditional family in the face of cultural relativism.” In addition to the over 2,500 names on the ACR petition, another 2,220 names collected by the Presbyterian Lay Committee in support of traditional marriage will also be delivered to the congressional leadership and White House.
The text of the ACR petition reads:
- Marriage is the primary, essential institution of civil society. It has come under increasing attack from those who would remake marriage into the image of shifting cultural trends rather than affirm the unchanging design given to us at creation – a design recognized across cultures and history. We also acknowledge the unambiguous sociological evidence that children are best off with a mother and a father. It is becoming increasingly clear that legal measures to protect the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman are necessary to preserve the place of marriage in our society. We support measures protecting the definition of marriage, including the prompt adoption of the Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as necessary to safeguard this fundamental social institution from unwarranted and destructive revision.