Is there no justice for marriage?

Justice is supposed to be blind.  And the Justice Department is supposed to do justice without regard to politics.

When Congress passed DOMA in 1996 with overwhelming bipartisan support, it laid out clear reasons why marriage deserves legal protection:

“At bottom, civil society has an interest in maintaining and protecting the institution of heterosexual marriage because it has a deep and abiding interest in encouraging responsible procreation and child-rearing.”

As Maggie says, “This is not some kind of weird side argument drummed up by folks who don't like gay people. It has been at the heart of America's marriage tradit
ion since the dawn of the Republic.”

Dozens of courts have ruled that procreation is a key purpose of marriage — long before anyone was thinking about gay marriage. A New Jersey judge in 1921 waxed pretty lyrical:
“Lord Penzance has observed that the procreation of children is one of the ends of marriage. I do not hesitate to say that it is the most important object of matrimony, for without it the human race itself would perish from the earth.”

Even in liberal states like New York, Washington, and Maryland, state supreme courts have ruled: Marriage is not discrimination, because unions of husband and wife really are different, and they serve the government interest in promoting responsible procreation in a special way. It's not discrimination to treat different relationships differently. It's common sense.

But Pres. Obama's Justice department, in a nakedly political move after political protests,  speaking on behalf of you and me as the government of the United States, just told a federal court of law: “The government does not contend that there are legitimate government interests in 'creating a legal structure that promotes the raising of children by both of their biological parents' or that the government's interest in 'responsible procreation' justifies Congress's decision to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.”

“I couldn't believe it,” one high-powered lawyer emailed me. “I mean, it's one thing for Jerry Brown to make an argument like that to the California courts. It's another thing for the United States Justice Department to do it.”

What just happened? Maggie said it better than I could: ”A loud interest group that helped fund President Obama's victory succeeded this week by belligerent protests in gaining a key shift in Justice Department legal arguments. …President Obama is sabotaging DOMA while pretending to defend it in court, in order to please a core political interest group that donated money to support his campaign.”

If you have already taken action to send a message to Pres. Obama, thank you.  If you haven't, fight back today! Justice for marriage today!

It's been a busy “NOM in the News” week, as you can see below. One thing I'd like to call to your attention is the huge success of NOM-Rhode Island's “Celebrate Marriage and Family Day.” A handful of protestors turned out to what even the Providence Journal admits was a warm, inviting celebration of unions of husband and wife, capped by a vow renewal ceremony. As ProJo columnist Bob Kerr noted, “By all reports, the celebration in Warwick Sunday was warm and confirming. It was also a masterful piece of work by the National Organization For Marriage.”

Help us fight for marriage! Your donations help us preserve and promote the beautiful truth about marriage. 

Let me close this week with a letter NOM received from a pastor in Indiana. He was prompted to write after reading “The Carrie Effect,” the cover story Maggie wrote in National Review from the frontlines of the marriage wars over the last few months.

“I just read your article on Carrie Prejean in the National Review. As a family values guy I thank you for your timely words. I was in fact beginning to feel like I was beseiged by the Borg. Your article has given me more than just fresh insight; it has given me hope that gay marriage is not inevitable. Your insight that when marriage becomes more about two adults in love than children in need our country is in big trouble has framed the argument in precisely the right way.  …

“Ms. Gallagher, I am a pastor in a main line denomination and as you can imagine, I hold a biblical world view. One piece of that biblical world view is that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman at a time. For holding this world view, the cultural elite of this nation has branded me, and others like me as a bigot, a hater and intolerant. But the other part of my biblical world view compells me to love all human beings as creatures who have been created in the image of God; as individuals of sacred worth in the sight of God. ….

“Unfortunately for all of us, the cultural elite of our nation has no interest in that part of me, or others like me however. They would rather focus on that first part of me because it allows them to hate me without knowing me; to hate without putting a real human face on the object of their hatred. I have discovered that when people hate, they can easily get around the reality that facts are stubborn things and that maybe, just maybe, those of us on this side of the debate have something important to say. In that context I would ask: 'Who indeed is the bigot?'
 
“To close, as I was reading your article, I was reminded of John F. Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage, which I read some twenty or thirty years ago. I remember the book quite well and was very impressed by it. If someone were to write a new Profiles in Courage today, Carrie Prejean and her story would be worthy of a very lengthy chapter.”

Thank you, Reverend. I just had to share your letter because it says a lot about who we in the marriage movement are–you and me, and the thousands of others who recognize that marriage is worth fighting for.

Here's the final piece of good news: There are not just thousands of us out there. This week we announced in a press release that we have passed a HUGE milestone: 500,000 activists have joined NOM's merry band of marriage warriors. We are well on our way to building two million marriage activists.

Thank the Lord! And thank you.

Let not your hearts be troubled.  I hope and pray for God's blessing on you and your family, for your courage and your decency.