Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Whatever happened to separation of church and state?

onetime2 · 03-12-2004, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Bush Assures Evangelicals of His Commitment to Amendment on Marriage
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: March 12, 2004

OLORADO SPRINGS, March 11 — In a speech expressing his solidarity with the National Association of Evangelicals at its annual convention here, President Bush on Thursday forcefully restated his call for passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to enthusiastic rounds of applause.

Mr. Bush, speaking via teleconference displayed on three giant screens in the mammoth New Life Church, gave a hearty endorsement to the association, which boasts a membership including 45,000 congregations, with 30 million members.

Mr. Bush said it was founded "with the highest of callings, to proclaim the word of God." He added, "You are doing God's work with conviction and kindness and on behalf of our country I thank you."

Interrupted by applause several times, he later said, "I will defend the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage. The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society."

Mr. Bush gave his speech hours before the California Supreme Court ordered San Francisco to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and before the Massachusetts legislature gave preliminary approval to compromise measures that could ban gay marriage while allowing civil unions.

Several prominent evangelical Protestants in Washington have told the White House that backing the constitutional amendment is vital to getting evangelical voters to turn out on Election Day. And the convention organizers were aware of their clout. A slogan on the back of the convention program reads: "What Can 30 Million Evangelicals Do For America? Anything We Want."

While Mr. Bush's vocal support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage pleased this audience, his stance has also worried some Republicans. Some of his aides said Mr. Bush appeared uncomfortable in his public announcement last month at the White House, and a handful of Republicans have said they hope he will not bring it up again for fear of seeming intolerant or divisive.

Other issues that generated rounds of applause for the president on Thursday included his strong support for several anti-abortion measures.

He also called on Congress to pass an act treating fetuses injured in attacks on pregnant women as crime victims in their own right.

He repeated his longstanding opposition to cloning and new stem-cell research, just a month after South Korean researchers announced that they had produced human embryos and stem cells through cloning.

"I oppose the use of federal funds for the destruction of embryos for stem cell research," Mr. Bush said, "and I will work with Congress to pass a comprehensive and effective ban on human cloning. Human life is a creation of God, not a commodity to be exploited by man."

One of the few discordant notes at the convention came from Robert Schuller, a televangelist and senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., who delivered an address gently criticizing some conservative evangelical Christians for acting as if they know the only possible route to salvation.

"What upsets me about religious leaders of all faiths is that they talk like they know it all, and anybody who doesn't agree with them is a heretic," he said later in an interview.

Mr. Schuller said he did not know enough about the proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage to express a view. But he suggested that politics could be a distraction from more important matters.

"Politics is a force that pulls answers towards mediocrity," he said, "That is why when issues are politicized, I am gone."

Marriage has a religious foundation far older than the laws of our country. If recognizing marriage between a man and a woman didn't violate the "separation of church and state", why would you possibly think that not recognizing a gay marriage would?