Colson group promotes preaching to defend traditional marriages
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 24, 2004
Charles Colson, evangelical writer and founder of Prison Fellowship, is leading an effort called the National Preaching Initiative that encourages ministers to help their congregations understand the Biblical reasons that marriage rights should not be extended to homosexual couples.
In an announcement sent to The Layman Online, Colson said, “Given what’s at stake, I believe that Christians need to make stopping the spread of same-sex ‘marriage’ their number-one cultural priority. Pastors, priests, and clergy of all denominations should be leading the charge.”
The National Preaching Initiative has developed a Web site called the Wilberforce Forum that provides resources for ministers to preach on the marriage issue during September and October. The Web site includes sample sermons, research material, information about the Federal Marriage Amendment and Colson’s columns on the issue.
The 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted neither to support nor oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment and instructed its Washington Office not to lobby either way. Elenora Giddings Ivory, the director of the Washington Office, had previously lobbied for granting same-sex marriages and declared erroneously that the denomination favored them. She continued to lobby for same-sex marriages after the General Assembly, having failed to take her name off a pro-gay letter in a timely manner.
The General Assembly commissioners also voted against an ecumenical statement called “A Christian Declaration on Marriage.” The declaration did not mention homosexual couples. Rather, it called on churches to work to strengthen traditional marriages and families.
Although the PCUSA took no position on the Federal Marriage Amendment, it did authorize a study of “the feasibility of providing domestic partners in long-term committed relationships the same benefits accorded to married couples.”
In May, same-sex “marriage” became legal in Massachusetts as the courts ignored both the will of the people and the needs of children in society. Since then, traditional marriage has been challenged in California, New York, Washington State, and elsewhere across the country.
“Most Americans don’t believe that same-sex ‘marriage’ could actually become the law of the land, and they don’t fully realize how it would impact them and their children,” stated Colson.
Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution has written that widespread acceptance of same-sex “marriage” will widen the already existing gap between parenthood and marriage and continue to break down the family. He says studies confirm that the lack of an intact family puts children at greater risk of abuse, drug use, poor school performance, sexual promiscuity and criminal activity.
“This issue has the potential to redefine and, ultimately, to destroy the institution of marriage in this country – and with marriage goes the family. The Church can’t afford to be silent on this issue.”
Founded in 1991 as a division of Prison Fellowship, the Wilberforce Forum seeks to stimulate thought and dialogue on key moral issues and to educate academia, policy makers, justice officials, church leaders, and the general public on current issues from a Christian worldview.