DOMA donnybrook
Evangelicals rally around marriage-defense bill
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, March 24, 2011
Following a recent announcement that the Obama Administration will no longer enforce a 14-year-old, pro-marriage law, several evangelical organizations have mobilized their members to lobby Congress.
A Republican-led Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996 and the bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law, which defines marriage as a legal union between a man and woman, has faced several fronts of attack since passage, including court challenges and repeal attempts.
In late February, Attorney General Eric Holder released a Justice Department opinion that parts of the law were unconstitutional and announced the Obama Administration would no longer enforce the law. Critics of the decision say it will open the gates to legalization of same-sex marriage at the federal level.
The FRC Action, the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council (FRC), recently urged supporters to sign a petition condemning the Justice Department’s actions and commending the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for funding an effort to fight legal challenges to DOMA.
“This decision by President Obama and the Department of Justice is appalling,” said FRC president Tony Perkins in a press release.
“The President’s failure to defend DOMA is also a failure to fulfill his oath to ‘faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.’ What will be the next law that he will choose not to enforce or uphold?”
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention has also joined the fray. ERLC president Richard Land said: “God’s design for marriage as the union of one man and one woman has come under renewed assault.”
“The legalization of same-sex marriage will harm families and society,” he added.
Land, along with National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson and other religious leaders, have signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging Congress to defend DOMA.
“The House has the authority to rectify this lapse in judgment. We implore you to lead the House to take the important, necessary step to protect American law, American families, and American values,” the letter reads.
“If the federal government will not defend federal laws, we’re facing legal chaos,” said Tom Minnery, a vice president with Focus on the Family, in a recent article in USA Today.
“We would hope Congress uses the tools at its disposal to counter this decision and defend marriage,” he added.
The Justice Department announcement came in response to two court cases previously filed by opponents of DOMA in 2009. In July 2010, a federal judge ruled in the plaintiff’s favor and Bush Administration Justice officials appealed — an appeal the Obama Administration plans to drop.
In 2004, the Presbyterian Lay Committee issued an open letter to Presbyterians calling for Christians to support traditional marriage. The letter called efforts to enact same-sex marriage a “cultural assault.”
The letter further urged believers to affirm that Biblical marriage is “from Scripture; that it is a gift of the Creator God.”
Last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill attempting to repeal DOMA. The bill is currently scheduled to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill has 19 sponsors.
A recent Pew Research Center poll has further heated the DOMA debate. According to a February poll, 45 percent of those polled say gay people should be allowed to marry. In 2009, that number stood at 37 percent. When DOMA first passed in 1996, only 27 percent of American favored gay marriage.