Skip to main content
Tags: Supreme Court | religious leaders | civil disobedience

Religious Leaders: 'Civil Disobedience' If Gay Marriage Legalized

By    |   Wednesday, 29 April 2015 04:35 PM EDT

Prominent Christians are readying a campaign of civil disobedience against any Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, writes Fox News radio host and columnist Todd Starnes.

With a decision expected this spring or summer after the justices heard arguments on Tuesday, the Christian activists are organizing their effort around a newly drafted manifesto called the "Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage."

Defenders of marriage as a heterosexual institution acknowledge that a majority could rule against them, making same-sex unions the law of the land.

"I'm calling for people to not recognize the legitimacy of that ruling because it's not grounded in the rule of law," Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and a drafter of the pledge, told Starnes.

"They need to resist that ruling in every way possible. In a peaceful way — they need to resist it as much as Martin Luther King Jr. resisted unjust laws in his time."

The campaign invokes the civil rights movement that employed sit-ins and marches to protest racial segregation in everything from lunch counters to college campuses.

The pledge says in part: "We will view any decision by the Supreme Court or any court the same way history views the Dred Scott and Buck v. Bell decisions. Our highest respect for the rule of law requires that we not respect an unjust law that directly conflicts with higher law … We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross this line."

"While there are many things we can endure," the pledge says in closing, "redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross."

Staver co-wrote the document with Deacon Keith Fournier, editor in chief of Catholic Online, and they launched the Defend Marriage campaign in conjunction with two influential conservative religious figures: Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, and James Dobson, founder of Family Talk Radio.

Organizers count more than 25,000 pledge signatures to date at the campaign's website, defendmarriage.org. Key signers include two former Republican presidential candidates — Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum — as well as Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips.

Dobson, a pillar of the U.S. evangelical movement, told Starnes that marriage as solely between a man and a woman "must be defended."

"It's the foundation for the entire culture," he said. It's been in existence for 5,000 years. If you weaken it or if you undermine it — the entire superstructure can come down. We see it as that important."

Scarborough told Starnes that governments and courts are already criminalizing Christian belief with "outrageous penalties" — such as the $135,000 fine against an Oregon bakery that refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding — and judicial rulings that upend "a set of laws that the culture historically has agreed to."

Scarborough said he would have no choice but to "serve the Lord" by opposing a ruling to uphold same-sex marriage.

"I think that thousands of other pastors will take that position, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Christians," he said.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


US
Prominent Christians are readying a campaign of civil disobedience against any Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, writes Fox News radio host and columnist Todd Starnes.
Supreme Court, religious leaders, civil disobedience
528
2015-35-29
Wednesday, 29 April 2015 04:35 PM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 
TOP

Interest-Based Advertising | Do not sell or share my personal information

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Download the Newsmax App
NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved