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Pro-Family Leaders Hail Missouri Marriage Amendment's Passage
By Jenni ParkerAugust 5, 2004

(AgapePress) - Marriage defenders are commending pro-family Missourians who voted more than two-to-one on August 3 in favor of a state constitutional amendment to protect the sacred institution of marriage, defining it as the union of one man and one woman. The big win in Missouri is part of a trend and offers further proof that an overwhelming majority of Americans favors the biblical view of marriage.
Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families called the vote "a crushing defeat to the same-sex 'marriage' crowd." He notes that voter turnout was extremely high for an August election, which proves that the win was "no fluke," despite the fact that the same-sex marriage proponents had hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on promoting their agenda, while the traditional marriage crowd had only "a shoestring budget."
The conservative spokesman also called attention to the fact that, just this week, Ohio and North Dakota appear to have collected enough signatures to put this issue on the ballot in those states. "That means that in November, as many as a dozen states will vote up or down on same-sex 'marriage,' Bauer stated, adding, "I believe we will be out-spent and out-advertised in every one of those states and nonetheless, we will win!"
Bauer feels the Missouri vote showed, once again, what he and other pro-family leaders have been contending for some time: "The American people don't want same-sex 'marriage' -- period," he says.
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action, agrees. He also issued a response to Missouri's passage of the constitutional marriage amendment, noting that the citizens' nearly 71 percent support for the measure made the will of the people crystal clear. In that statement, he commented, "The lopsided results of this election prove, once again, the mind of everyday Americans on the crucial issue of how marriage should be defined for future generations."
The pro-family ministry spokesman noted how politicians and the media often portray the U.S. as a nation closely divided, "split right down the middle" on several hot-button social issues. Yet, he pointed out, "nearly three-fourths of Missourians say they want marriage to continue to mean what it's meant for thousands of years."
Is Missouri a Sign of Things to Come?Dobson observes that every time the people have been asked this question -- every time a state constitutional marriage amendment has been put on the ballot for the people to vote on -- their answer has been the same. And his assertion is statistically verifiable: in fact, each of the states that has enacted a constitutional marriage amendment had its citizens decisively supporting the measure by nearly the same margins.
In 1998, the people of Hawaii voted 69.2% to 28.6% in favor of an amendment that reserved the right of the legislature, not the judiciary, to define marriage. That same year, Alaska's citizens voted 68.11% to 31.89% to enact a constitutional amendment defining marriage. And in 2000, Nebraska's citizens voted in such an amendment, 70.1% to 29.9%. Nevada followed in 2002, supporting the constitutional amendment 67.1% to 32.7%; and, of course, Missouri has now joined this trend, voting 70.7% to 29.3% in favor of the Missouri Marriage Amendment.
Focus on the Family Action's founder considers it particularly significant that Missouri is the first state to constitutionally protect marriage since the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision last year that legalized same-sex marriage in that state. He notes that Missouri has been nicknamed "the bellwether state," for its seeming political prescience (having failed only once in the last century to vote for the winner in the presidential race) and hopes that, perhaps, America's bellwether is forecasting a fair wind in the fight to defend marriage.
As many as a dozen other states will be considering constitutional marriage amendments between now and November. Among them are Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana, and Oregon. At press time, Ohio was on the brink of becoming the 13th state that could vote on the issue this fall.
Dobson says his group firmly believes the August 3 vote in Missouri was "just the start of a coast-to-coast movement of the people, who are fed up with judicial tyrants arrogantly making law from the bench." And the pro-family leader says when the ballots in the other states are counted, "we are confident Missouri will again prove itself to be a bellwether."
Political ImplicationsGary Bauer believes the same-sex marriage issue, by itself, could decide the November presidential election in George Bush's favor. However, the conservative pundit says Bush's team must understand how vulnerable John Kerry is in this area and must have the confidence to take him on directly.
Bauer points out that Kerry has repeatedly taken what the conservative describes as a "two-faced position," claiming to be in favor of defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but voting against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and opposing the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which the Democrat candidate says would put "hate into our Constitution."
The issue is sure to come up during the presidential debates, and Bauer predicts Kerry will try to convince voters that he and Bush agree on the definition of marriage but not on the appropriateness of amending the Constitution of the United States." If George W. Bush is to prevail," Bauer says, he has to be bold and work to "show the stark differences between [himself] and Kerry."