The historic effort to pass the 2008 marriage amendment has crossed into a new phase. With goal number one met (getting the amendment on the ballot), phase 2 of the plan involves allowing Florida residents to decide on the matter for themselves. The Florida Family Policy Council is asking churches throughout the state of Florida to do the following three things in preparation for the 2008 voting season. From a letter posted on their website: 

“First, we need you to appoint a key contact in your church who will communicate with us and organize the effort.  Second, we are asking each church to plan now to host several Citizenship Sundays in September of 2008– to register new voters or get voters information updated with current voters. Third, we are asking pastors to schedule a Marriage Sunday one of the three weekends prior to the November 2008 election to bring attention to the importance of protecting marriage and the need to vote YES on this historic amendment.” 

This letter and relevant forms can be downloaded from their website: www.flfamily.org 

John Stemberger’s efforts to allow voters to decide on an amendment to the Florida State constitution have succeeded, in the face of opposition efforts to prohibit the vote from taking place. All the necessary signatures have been collected. During the 2008 election, voters throughout Florida will be able to decide whether or not to amend the constitution to define a marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Apparently an announcement made by the Christian Family Coalition was premature. The CFC boasted of submitting the remaining 3,300 ballots needed to get the pro-marriage amendment on Florida’s ballot in 2008. John Stemberger, leader of Florida4Marriage which is officially handling the ballots, said that this was inaccurate.

In any case, the marriage petition is certainly close to its goal.

“In our system of government, the people of Florida, not unaccountable judges, should define marriage in our state,” said Anthony Verdugo, CFC chairman.

All ballots will need to be approved, and will undoubtedly be challenged in court by the opposition. But it is looking increasingly like Floridians will be able to choose for themselves whether or not marriage should be defined as only between one man and one woman in 2008. 

SRC: Read the Miami Herald Blog article

On his website Attorney and Consumer Advocate John Morgan says, “My whole life I’ve been representing the people, not the powerful.” His law firm Morgan & Morgan has long defended people from medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and neglect, wrongful death, workers comp, social security and more. 

Now we can add “alleged homophobes” to the list of villains, joining big corporations, insurance companies or hospitals, the common predators who prey on the helpless to take their lunch money were it not for Morgan saving the day. That’s right, Morgan & Morgan is “for the people,” especially homosexual people.

The law firm has reportedly donated $250,000 to Florida Red & Blue to help fund the state-wide opposition to marriage. The money will be used to air homosexual propaganda in hopes of swaying public opinion against the marriage amendment.

John Stemberger, another Orlando lawyer, has been spearheading the pro-marriage amendment efforts. When asked to comment on Morgan’s actions:

“He says he is ‘For the People’, but ‘The People’ do not support homosexual marriages.”

Morgan seems to be “For some of the people”. There are at least half-a-million people in Florida who he is decidedly against, given his full-fledged commitment to kill an initiative started by “The People.” If Morgan were truly for the people, why not give the people a choice to decide for themselves, by voting on the issue in 2008? It looks increasingly like that will happen, and the people will actually be able to speak for themselves, despite Morgan’s efforts to effectively silence them.

We are engaged in an all out battle across the country, including the Sunshine State. Sadly, without an all-out effort to defend the truth, the Sunshine State could become the Rainbow State, as homosexual activists advance their anti-marriage agenda. Not motivated out of fear or vengeance, but out of love for marriage and family, and a desire to see them protected so that they might continue to bear witness to the redeeming work of Christ and his relationship with the church, this blog is intended to promote these values of family and marriage, and highlight others who are doing the same. 

Stop the celebration!

All around the world people are celebrating Thanksgiving, our annual time to come together as families, enjoy a little food and interaction, and remind ourselves of all that we have to be grateful for.

And destroy the planet as well.

How? Because Thanksgiving and Christmas contribute to global warming. As Drudge reports: A “new study has linked the traditional feasts associated with Thanksgiving and Christmas to increases in planetary temperatures.

“Apparently the Turkey Fry at our church the other day did a little more than fry Turkeys. It fried earth! We should have advertised on our signs “Turkey & Ozone Layer Fry, Saturday Nov. 21st.”As the experts in this report will say, “the additional energy required to fatten, slaughter, ship and roast tens of millions of turkeys causes a seasonal spike in greenhouse gasses. Scientists say the effects of these spikes could be devastating.”

Alas, the vindication of the fowl! Hear you Turkeys: these evil human beings who fatten you for the sole purpose of killing you just because you taste good are in reality killing themselves. They will pay for their crimes, as they consume and dilute all of the natural resources in the world and end up cooking themselves as well as you. It’s called Global Warming: God’s vengeance on the Thankful.

Dear reader: This Thanksgiving is a time to weep and to be grateful for scientists and experts. Without them we would all merrily celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and all of the blessings of God, including his abundant provision of tasty turkeys, all the while completely and blissfully ignorant of the fact that our inability to contain all of this pent-up gratefulness will result in mankind’s ultimate doom.

As you gather around your tables this thanksgiving, ask God to give us more scientists and experts to add to the list of the myriad of things that could send us into oblivion. Ask God to help us grow in our pessimism and learn to count our blessings less often, and count our fears all the more often. Ask God to help you remember to be anxious about tomorrow, because today does not have enough troubles of its own.

And finally, ask God not to be too hard on George Washington, who in 1789 proclaimed a national Day of Thanksgiving. I mean, how could the man have known that his little proclamation would one day destroy the world?

The Florida Family Policy Council is extending its reach into South Florida. As reported in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, this could be a significant venture, as we try to establish a presence in the dense population of the most gay-friendly area of the state.

“You can’t really do anything in Florida without having South Florida included”, John Stemberger said.

The Florida Education Association is threatened by the proposedmarriage ammendment currently being promoted to the 2008 Florida votersballot by John Stemberger and Florida4Marriage.org. An FEA spokesman (reported in 365gay.com) recently said that marriage was less importantthan property tax and insurance reform.To the best of my understanding FEA is aunion designed to represent the views and protect the interests of Florida’s teachers, and plays no small role in what is taught in ourschools. So it is no small deal when the organization speaks out on culturalissues. Several weeks ago spokesman Bill Phillips made a comment thatproperty-tax reform was a critical issue that really matters, and thatany discussion on marriage would only divide us and distract us fromthe more important things like insurance reform. Read the story here.

FEA is doing its best to protect its constituents “rights” to engage in a sinful lifestyle. Phillips admits as much: “Theproposed language of this amendment would clearly endanger benefitsand rights already enjoyed by our members and we find thatunacceptable.”

Clearly Phillips’ understanding is that gay people enjoytheir sinful activity and anything that would bring into question the”benefits” of this rebellion is unacceptable. Other than the perverted enjoyment ofsin, what benefit has ever come from homosexuality?This is a very typical response and indicative of the sinful humancondition, to minimize the seriousness of sin and downplay its effects.

Essentially, rather than try to defend what cannot be defended, someadopt the tact of downplaying homosexual perversion, to such an extentthat they view it as less important than rather minor issues likeinsurance and property taxes.

Here is more of Phillips’ quote: “Additionally, our state is currently facing a financial storm made up ofan economic slowdown, inadequate insurance reform and an ill-conceived property tax amendment. Florida must focus on the critical issues that really matterinstead of an amendment that seeks to divide us.”

But what is the effect of this downplaying of sin? By minimizing theseriousness of homosexuality, we also minimize the importance andprominence of marriage. If homosexuality is not important, marriagecannot be important. If marriage, however, is important, threats of homosexuality must be viewed as important as well.That is why we must not be distracted by comparatively irrelevant issues like tax reform than we are about enduring central issues like marriage and family.

Societies have long prospered without homeinsurance, because the families who lived in those homes were strong.The biggest “storm” our state faces is not financial but moral. Willthe great Failed Experiment of building a society on the foundation oftampered sexuality actually work this time? Or will God’s Word, whichpromises that he won’t be mocked and we’ll reap what we sow prove trueas it always has? I think the latter is true, but I hope Stemberger’sefforts will keep the Failed Experiment from being launched to wreak havoc in Florida.

My friend John Stemberger’s efforts to save marriage is closing in on an important milestone. They are only 13,000 ballots away from the required 611,000+ needed to put a marriage amendment on the ballot for the 2008 elections. The amendment would change Florida’s constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, so that marriage cannot be defined in ways that the Bible forbids, and so that marriages and families can be protected by state law. If you are a Florida resident and have not signed a ballot, please go to www.Florida4Marriage.org and find out what you can do to help these last minute efforts to get the ballot past.

Remarkably, the entire campaign has been volunteer-based, and is drawing very close to its goal. Go to the website and find out what you can do to help. Rebekah and I, soon after our wedding, had the privilege of standing with John Stemberger on the stage at his press conference announcing the initiative in our wedding attire, as a picture of the Bible’s vision of marriage, and the way it represents the union between Christ and the church. What a worthy image to preserve.