Your help is immediately needed to protect traditional marriage
Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
This week Senators Jim Forrester (R-Gaston) and Jim Jacummin (R-Burke) introduced legislation to protect traditional marriage, SB 272 – Defense of Marriage Act. The bill garnered 21 co-sponsors, which is almost half the Senate.
Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett) plans to introduce the companion bill on the House side by Tuesday (March 3) of next week. At this point, it’s not known how many lawmakers in that chamber will sponsor the bill. But what we do know is the premiere gay rights organization in North Carolina, Equality NC is urging all its supporters to contact their lawmakers and ask them not to sign on as sponsors.
Equality NC refers to this legislation as the “Marriage Discrimination Act.” To the contrary, the measure does not discriminate. Matthew Staver, President and General Counsel for Liberty Counsel notes:
“Such reasoning is wrong and has never been a part of state or federal jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has noted that ‘[u]nless a classification trammels fundamental personal rights or is drawn upon an inherently suspect distinction such as race, religion or alienage, our decisions presume the constitutionality of the statutory discriminations and require only that the classification challenged be rationally related to a legitimate state interest.’ Not all distinctions are impermissible. Even distinctions based upon race, religion or alienage may be permissible in certain circumstances.” [Same Sex Marriage, 2004, Broadman and Holman Publishers]
Staver also rightly contends that preserving traditional marriage is no more discriminatory than gender-specific restrooms. Marriage has never been open to just anyone. Polygamists are not allowed to marry, incestuous unions are not allowed, and in most states there are age restrictions to marriage.
But gay activists are committed to convincing your lawmaker that he/she shouldn’t sign on to the Defense of Marriage Act because they say it’s discriminatory.
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Take Christian Action: Contact your Representative in the North Carolina House and ask him/her to sponsor Rep. David Lewis’s Defense of Marriage bill and to sign onto it before Tuesday, March 3, which is the deadline for sponsoring the legislation. Equality NC understands that the more lawmakers sign the bill to sponsor it, the harder it will be for the House Leadership to ignore it.
Pastors are strongly encouraged to take this matter up with the church and provide their congregation with the name and contact information of the NC Representative in their church’s district. Explain the urgency of the matter from the pulpit or during the announcements. Put it in the church bulletin or have the ushers pass out flyers. Urge congregants to make phone calls and send emails before Tuesday.
If you don’t know who represents you or your area in the North Carolina House, take these four easy steps and then save the information for future reference.
- Go to the North Carolina General Assembly’s web site at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us
- At the top of the NCGA web site click on “Representation“
- At the top of the Representation page under the first category of “Representation” are listed four means of securing the name and contact information of the person/persons representing your district. It can either be accessed by Voter Registration, District, County, or ZIP Code
- Simply clicking on the Zip Code category can be the easiest and fastest way of securing the needed information. Type in the zip code + 4 code as registered on your driver’s license and a page with your lawmaker’s names (NC House, NC Senate) and links to their contact information will appear.
