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| An Important Message from Rick Santorum | May 5, 2009 |
| My friend, I've never come to you with a more urgent message: we must act NOW to protect marriage. An out-of-control supreme court has forced same-sex marriage on Iowa and an out-of-touch legislature has done the same in Vermont. States like New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Maine are in the fight of their lives to uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Understand this: these fights are about much more than these states alone. There is a concerted effort to use passage of same-sex marriage in these states to force it on every other state in the union. How? Through the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act! With one stroke of the pen, President Obama could sign into law a bill that allows judges in one state to impose gay marriage on 47 other states. Yes, powerful leaders in the White House and Congress are taking aim at the one federal law that protects marriage and other values we hold sacred. But fortunately, the National Organization for Marriage has already prepared a DOMA Defense Fund to mobilize the American people and tell Congress: "Enough, Don't Mess with Marriage!" I was in the Senate chamber on that historic day back in 1996 when an overwhelming majority of Senators and Congressmen came together to pass the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which is the ONLY federal law that protects marriage as the union of husband and wife. DOMA makes sure that four judges based in Boston or San Francisco cannot impose gay marriage on the rest of us. It also makes sure that taxpayers like you and me cannot be forced by judges or gay marriage activists to subsidize same-sex unions as if they were just the same as traditional marriages. As I sat in the Senate that day I can remember what an extraordinary moment it was: How proud you and I could be of the way Americans of every party and creed came together to protect our common sense understanding of marriage. Even Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law -- that's how broad and powerful the bipartisan consensus for marriage is. This was a high moment in our history, an instance of real bipartisanship, real unity, a real shining moment of patriots rising above factionalism in the national interest to protect our shared values. In passing DOMA, Republicans and Democrats came together to make sure marriage remains one man and one woman. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine a day when a handful of special interests would try to take that great moment away -- a day when special interests threaten to prove more powerful and influential than the great, vast voice of the American people on marriage. But my friends, that is where we are today. This is the day that God has made for us to stand up for traditional marriage once again, backed up by reason, history and common sense. Marriage is a sacred union of male and female. Marriage is a unique status and a shared social ideal; it's the precious and irreplaceable way we teach the next generation that men and women need each other and that children have a right to both a mother and a father. Marriage should never be turned into a politicized plaything that powerful politicians misuse to placate their clamorous partisan bases. Not while you and I have a breath left in our bodies, right? Last November, the American people yet again voted to protect marriage in California, Arizona and Florida, bringing to 30 the number of states where the people have voted to protect marriage. On 30 out of 30 occasions, everywhere from Alabama to Wisconsin, from Oregon to Virginia, the American people have demonstrated OUR commitment to marriage. This fall, the voice of the people surprised the pundits and reaffirmed a core truth: When it comes to marriage there are no blue states, red states or purple states. On marriage, Americans speak with one voice, in rare unity of purpose. Americans do not want activist judges or arrogant politicians changing the meaning of marriage for us -- or worse, imposing a twisted politicized idea of marriage on our children and grandchildren. "Leave it to the states" was the slogan we heard over and over again from gay marriage activists when Congress was debating the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004. Yet today these same activists want to force every single state to recognize the same-sex marriages that have been forced on the country by one-judge majorities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They are backed by billionaires who want to use their money to change the face of politics -- to impose their values on the rest of us. That's right, while we are tending to our jobs, going to church, and raising our families, a handful of wealthy gay men are plotting ways to use their giant fortunes to reshape the entire American political landscape in their own image. Sound a little hard to believe? I thought so too, until I read the March 1, 2007 Atlantic Monthly article that documents the detailed plans and huge influence these men are having, led by one gay billionaire activist named Tim Gill. The article is called "They Won't Know What Hit Them," and the subtitle pretty much says it all: "Tim Gill has a mission: stop the Rick Santorums of tomorrow before they get started. How a network of gay political donors is stealthily . . . reshaping American politics." That grabbed my attention, how about yours? In the 2006 election cycle, Gill pumped $15 million into defeating the good guys. According to the Atlantic Monthly, he succeeded seventy percent of the time. We don't have tens of millions of dollars from a handful of billionaires funding our efforts. This time, it's up to us. Think about the success of the gay marriage movement. If two percent of the population funded by a handful of rich men can work a revolution in culture, what could sixty percent of the population do with the right tools and strategy? We can take Gill's strategy and flip it against him. We can use it to protect marriage by creating the real possibility of political risk, the risk that politicians SHOULD feel when they vote against their own constituents' voices and values. Will you join me in making a donation to support the National Organization for Marriage 2009 DOMA Defense Fund, making sure that we protect every state's right to protect marriage as the union of a husband and wife? NOM has turned the tables on the radical same-sex marriage lobby before. They have a proven track record of success in even the most liberal environments. Here's what one radical gay marriage group wrote about NOM's key role in allowing the people of California to vote to protect marriage: "Due to its sizeable early financial support . . . . NOM is chiefly responsible for the qualification of Proposition 8." What happened next as a result of NOM's foresight? A HUGE, totally unpredicted victory for marriage: California passed Proposition 8. Arizona and Florida followed suit, passing their own state marriage amendments, giving us a trifecta in the battle to protect marriage in 2008. In helping pass Proposition 8, NOM did what many said was impossible. In the deepest of blue states it proved that with the right resources and message, traditional marriage will win out every time against out-of-control judges and out-of-touch politicians. You and I and millions of other Americans know that we don't want courts telling us our views of marriage are just old-fashioned bigotry. We don't want public schools teaching our own children and grandchildren that our view of marriage is outdated hatred. We want and expect respect for marriage as an ideal because the ideal for children is a mother and a father united by the bonds of matrimony. Protecting children requires protecting marriage and its meaning from politicization and judicial deformation. Some things are just too important to leave up to politicians and special interests. Now is the time. One of President Obama's first acts was to announce the goal of repealing DOMA. He was bold enough to even highlight his plans for DOMA on the White House website: "Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions." Yes, that's right. Don't let the media fool you. Powerful politicians in Washington are pushing an aggressive, radical, and divisive new culture war on the American people. "Whether you like it or not," as San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom put it when he announced plans to push gay marriage down the throat of all Californians. If we don't act today, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and others in Congress will succeed in making the repeal of DOMA one of their most important "civil rights" priorities for 2009. With your help we will bring our voice and our values to Washington D.C. to defend marriage from the politicians and the special interests that seek to politicize our most precious institution for protecting children. Will you help us today? The White House web announcement was overlooked by some, because instead of being located under the "Family" heading, sabotaging DOMA was placed under the heading of one of the White House's highest "Civil Rights" priorities. Huh? Same-sex marriage is a "civil right"? Says who? Even most courts and the overwhelming majority of Americans have rejected that view. And just a few months ago, 70 percent of African Americans voted to protect marriage as one man and one woman in California. Americans of every race, creed and color are coming together to protect marriage. So why are Washington politicians taking aim at the one federal law that protects this common sense public definition of marriage? Because the hard-left base of the party is trying to persuade President Obama and Congress to do something that is bad policy and bad politics: bad for the country, bad for this Administration, bad for children, decency and common sense, bad for faith communities of all colors and creeds. They know the American people are not with them on this issue, but they are counting on apathy and silence to let them ram through their unpopular policies on a country distracted by our severe economic crisis. Well they don't know what people like you and me are willing to do to defend our values, do they? Thanks to the National Organization for Marriage, you and I have a plan to fight back. Activists are trying right now to persuade Congress that repealing DOMA is a win/win for them -- they can please a vocal minority of gay marriage activists and the rest of the country really won't care. They are wrong -- Americans do care about marriage. But Congress won't know it unless we tell them! Together you and I can make it crystal clear to the powerful misguided politicians in Washington: Don't sabotage DOMA, the one federal law protecting U.S. taxpayers from being forced by judges to treat same-sex unions as marriages. Don't let Washington politicians push such a divisive and intrusive issue against the will of the majority of the American people. What's at stake in this marriage debate? Common sense, common decency and the common good. The welfare of children, who get enough confusing distorted messages without our own government targeting marriage for redefinition. Here's one other thing you may not know about: Protecting marriage protects the religious liberty of all traditional faith communities. Why? Well, as judges and politicians push a radical redefinition of basic American values, they are beginning to use the power of government to order religious people and organizations -- charities, schools, and even churches -- to treat same-sex unions as marriages.
We've just gotten word: another Catholic Charities in Massachusetts is the latest sad victim of this ideological and political effort to use the power of government to impose new values on you and me. Catholic Charities in Worcester is being penalized by the state government. And in this case the true victims are the thousands of innocent children who are being denied this Christian adoption agency's loving help in finding good homes -- because this religious charity will not place children with same-sex couples. Other agencies will and do, but the government of Massachusetts, thanks to same-sex marriage, is increasingly committed to excluding traditional Christians (and people of other traditional faiths) from the public square. Pray for the children and for a change of heart! "I firmly believe that the revocation occurred because we were providing our adoption services in harmony with Catholic teaching," Ms. [Catherine] Loeffler said. "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts previously denied Massachusetts Catholic Charities a religious exemption to carry out our work according to our religious beliefs and then revoked our contracts." "I urge you to speak up," she said at the annual meeting of Catholic Charities. "Let's consider restoring hope for children." It's a powerful message: Restore hope for children. For it's always the most helpless innocents who suffer when adults put their politicized rights agenda first, isn't it? We need your help to break through the media silence and alert every caring American to the dangerously radical and deeply unpopular plan to overturn DOMA. Here's what Dr. James Dobson said about the urgency of the issue, after personally donating $25,000 to the National Organization for Marriage: "It's not just marriage that is at stake, it's absolutely everything." Dr. Dobson invited Maggie Gallagher and Professor Robert George to speak about the National Organization for Marriage on a Focus on the Family radio broadcast and urged pro-family Americans to support these important efforts: "This has been an ongoing struggle that burns in our hearts," Dr. Dobson says. "And now, marriage is really on the brink, and I don't know how to emphasize that more." I can't tell you how rare that it is for Dr. Dobson to endorse an organization -- not only with his warmest words, but with his and Shirley Dobson's own personal financial support. If you are like me, you probably can't match Dr. Dobson's generous past donation to NOM. But each of us is called to give what we can: our prayers, our calls and letters, our time and our treasure. NOM's powerful new technology allows ordinary Americans to multiply their voices with a few clicks of the mouse, swelling the chorus of pro-marriage voices to a never-before-heard crescendo: Americans of every race, creed and color speaking together for God's truth about marriage. NOM's 2009 DOMA Defense Fund will make your voice heard in the halls of power in Congress -- to make sure every member of Congress knows that in his or her district there are people to whom marriage matters and that we vote! How can 2 percent of the population defeat 60 percent majorities? They are counting on marriage supporters like us to be apathetic, silent, demoralized and disorganized. But no more, my friend, thanks to the National Organization for Marriage's DOMA Defense Fund. NOM's 2009 DOMA Defense Fund will build new coalitions across parties, races, denominations and organizations in order to swell our voices into an unstoppable pro-marriage chorus. So much is happening in Washington D.C. We need your help to be on the ground in D.C. now so that we can keep a watchful eye on out-of-control politicians. Most importantly, NOM's 2009 DOMA Defense Fund will help YOU take back the airwaves for marriage; it gives us a way to fight back against the unfair, absurd depiction of gay marriage radicalism the media portrays as a civil rights battle for our time. You know it and I know it: the mainstream media portrays Christians and other people of faith who support marriage as hate-filled bigots. Gay marriage activists' goal is to silence, intimidate and depress the opposition. Bullying and intimidation is at the heart of their movement's tactics because silencing your voice is the only way that lies and hatred can prevail over truth and love. But we will not be silenced or intimidated. Our voices will be heard, thanks to NOM's 2009 DOMA Defense Fund. With your help, we WILL hold politicians accountable for their efforts to evade the American people's values. With your help, we WILL spread the good news about marriage: Marriage is not based on bigotry. Marriage is not discrimination. Marriage as the union of husband and wife is -- let's keep it simple -- good! (Did you see NOM's president Maggie Gallagher on the Dr. Phil Show taking on Mayor Gavin Newsom and his absurd attempt to equate Prop 8 with a ban on interracial marriage? "The difference is that racism is bad, and marriage is good," she told this tone-deaf politician -- and millions of Americans cheered.) Marriage is a gift from God, a sacred bond. It's also a universal human institution, the way every known society works to teach young men and women that they need each other, and their children need them both. Marriage is not at all like racism, it is not founded on hatred, and we will NOT accept in silence these Big LIES endlessly repeated to our children and our grandchildren. Thanks to NOM, your values and your voices WILL be heard. If you give generously today to NOM's DOMA DEFENSE FUND, we can build: A Technology Turnaround. Creating a national grassroots email database of one million voters (segmented by state) who care about marriage and its related religious liberty issues, for state as well as national campaigns. This will permit us to let you know what your senator or congressman is up to and let HIM know how many folks in his own district care about this thing called marriage. New Youth Outreach. The young people are the future of marriage and right now where are they? On Facebook and MySpace, on Twitter and YouTube, and that's where we need to be too, integrating the most up-to-date social networking tools into our constituent relationship management software and website. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, along with a new blog, allow daily interaction with our activists and allow them to use their own social networks to fight to protect marriage. We will take a page from Obama's playbook and use these tools to tap into the social networks of our most ardent supporters. Mainstream Media (Radio and TV) Campaign. We scoured the country to find the most creative talent committed to marriage (we're talking about folks who helped craft the Passion of the Christ, and win marriage in California) and we need your help to get their great work in front of the American people. The fastest way to identify and organize new activists is through targeted TV and radio ads -- especially in the districts of tone-deaf Congressmen and Senators. One thing I've learned to trust after 15 years on the front lines: When things look the darkest, God raises up new reasons to hope. For those of us who are Christians, despair is a vice, and for us hope is not only a natural emotion, it's a theological virtue. We are each called to "faith, hope and love." It is the fuel for our battles with the forces of hate who seek (in the name of tolerance!) to silence God's own truth. That's why I'm so excited and energized by the launch of NOM's DOMA Defense Fund Your $5 or $10 a month contribution (think: one less Big Mac a month!) would make a world of difference. And know this, contributions to NOM's DOMA Defense Fund are NOT publicly disclosed. This means that you can donate unlimited funds and know they can be used in key fights around the country without worrying about harassment or intimidation from the other side. And don't forget: we need your prayers, too. Finally, to thank you, I'd like to give you a gift in return: Everyone who pledges a monthly gift to NOM's DOMA Defense Fund, no matter how large or small, will get a free CD of the Focus on the Family October 10th broadcast on gay marriage and what it will mean for churches and other Christian organizations throughout this country. One-time donations of $100 or more, or monthly donations of $10 a month, will receive a free copy of my book, It Takes a Family. Won't you take a stand for marriage and give today? God bless you, Rick Santorum |
| (C) 2009 National Organization for Marriage. | |
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