U.S. religious groups seek ban on same-sex marriage

U.S. religious groups seek ban on same-sex marriage

By David D. Kirkpatrick Copyright by The New York Times

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006

WASHINGTON A coalition of about 50 prominent religious leaders, including six Roman Catholic cardinals and a half-dozen archbishops, have signed a petition and pledged their influence to support a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

Organizers of the petition said it aimed to revive the groundswell of opposition to same-sex marriage that played a major roll in moving conservative voters to the polls in 2004. Republicans are increasingly worried about turnout in the elections this autumn, and Republican Senate leaders have scheduled a vote in June on the proposed constitutional amendment.
No one expects it to pass, but conservatives hope to use the vote to rally their grass-roots supporters against liberals who oppose the measure as discriminatory toward gay people.

The petition's organizers said many of the clergy involved had committed themselves to distributing postcards or letters for their congregants to send to senators urging support for the amendment.

At the request of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus printed 10 million postcards addressed to U.S. senators that they are distributing to Catholic churches around the country, said Patrick Korten, a spokesman for the group.

The petition included prominent evangelical Protestants, a few rabbis and an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But organizers and gay rights groups both said the petition also reflected a new engagement on the issue by prominent Catholic officials.

Although the Roman Catholic Church has long opposed same-sex unions and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had previously endorsed the proposed constitutional amendment, evangelical Protestants generally led the charge for the amendment when it was debated in 2004.

"The personal involvement of bishops and cardinals is significantly greater this time than in 2004," Korten of the Knights of Columbus said.

The bishops conference often lobbies about subjects of concern to the church like abortion laws, and they have recently flexed their muscles by helping to turn out millions to rally for immigration changes.

Several people involved in the effort said it had been organized in part by Professor Robert George of Princeton, an influential conservative Catholic scholar with close ties to evangelical Protestant groups.

Others involved said aides to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, were involved in the planning as well.

At a meeting in Washington in February, Senate staffers recommended the postcard campaign, recalling a very effective campaign the Catholic bishops organized behind legislation banning so-called partial birth abortions a decade ago, said Archbishop John Myers of Newark, another early participant in the effort.

"Senate staffers told us it had more effect than people realized," he said. "We think the American people are on our side on this, and we want the Senate to know it."

The religious groups' campaign is welcome news for Republicans at a time when many in the party are increasingly worried that their core supporters may be too demoralized by the war in Iraq and other matters to go to the polls.

Drives to amend state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage proved powerful incentives to turning out conservatives in such pivotal states as Ohio and Missouri in 2004, and at least two states with contested Senate races - Tennessee and Pennsylvania, where Santorum is seeking re-election - are debating state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage this year.

But Ohio and other pivotal states have already amended their constitutions, the depth of popular demand for amending the U.S. Constitution over the issue has never been tested, and at least one survey has suggested that the public's opposition is cooling.

In May, a nonpartisan Pew Research Poll found that 51 percent of the public opposed legalizing gay marriage, down from 63 percent in February 2004.

Joe Solmonese, president of the gay group Human Rights Campaign, said supporters of the marriage amendment were out of touch.

"We have a war raging in Iraq, we have a Gulf Coast that needs to be rebuilt, we have an economy barely hanging on," he said, "The last thing America wants is this Republican-controlled Congress spending time writing discrimination into the Constitution."

Still, Matt Daniels, founder of the Alliance for Marriage, an umbrella group that supports an amendment, said the members of the religious groups involved represented "huge numbers" of people.