In November, Texan voters will get a chance to have their say on gay marriage. Rick Perry has added a constitutional amendment to the November 8th ballot that proposes to define marriage as 'solely the union of a man and woman, and that the state and its political subdivisions could not create or recognize any legal status identical to or similar to marriage, including those created outside of Texas.'
The amendment was proposed by Rick Perry, but the group mobilizing voters to get out to the polls is known as the Texas Restoration Project, a group of pastors founded by Laurence White and Rick Scarborough. They aim to sign up 200,000 Christian voters who will vote for Proposition 2 in November.
"I think it's pretty easy for anybody who is looking at what [the Texas Restoration Project is] doing to see that they are marrying the re-election of Rick Perry to this issue of the marriage amendment to registering voters in conservative churches," said Glen Maxey, campaign director of No Nonsense in November, an Austin-based anti-amendment movement.
This has a lot of folks worried. For one, it proposes to ban something that's already illegal in Texas. Putting this on the ballot only shows that Rick Perry is worried about keeping his job. Another problem is that it seems to eliminate the possibility of a same-sex civil union.
And it gets worse... looks like Tom DeLay's dirty fingerprints are all over this one.
Follow the chain. We have Laurence White, the leader of the Texas Restoration project, which many say is simply a re-election group for Rick Perry. The Texas Restoration Project was started by 1,000 Patriot Pastors - which was created by Rick Scarborogh in 2004. They helped re-elect George W. Bush in 2004. And Scarborough has 'close ties' to Tom DeLay and other Senate conservatives.
Scarborough for years was little known outside of Texas despite long-standing ties to DeLay, who calls the preacher "one of my closest friends..."
Rick Scarborough was behind the concept of the 'nuclear option' that would have eliminated any possible minority objection to a presidential appointment. Many of the weird conservative statements we've been hearing from Tom DeLay are echoed by Rick Scarborough and James Dodson, another good friend of Laurence White. White's speeches have been broadcast before on Dobson's program.
DeLay is not backing off. In a videotaped message to a conservative conference last spring, he spoke of a "judiciary run amok" and said Congress should "reassert our constitutional authority over the courts." The conference called on Congress to withdraw federal courts' jurisdiction over issues involving marriage and the use of the word "God" and to consider the impeachment of some judges, according to organizer Rick Scarborough.
Rick Scarborough is a scary fellow. There's no doubt that he, Laurence White, and the 1,000 Patriot Pastors are behind Proposition 2. They believe that America is in a cesspool of perversion and lack of morality. They believe that church and state cannot be separated.
Scarborough and other grass-roots conservative religious leaders believe the federal courts are trouncing Christian values on marriage, abortion and other right-to-life issues raised in the Terri Schiavo case. While he lacks the name recognition of more prominent religious activists, such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and evangelist Pat Robertson, Scarborough is a potent force with close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and influential Senate conservatives.
In just the past two weeks, Scarborough has recruited 2,000 more Christian ministers for his Patriot Pastor network, boosting total membership of the three-year-old alliance to about 5,000 members. The Senate returns tomorrow from a one-week recess, and the showdown over judges could come sometime in the next few weeks.
Proposition 2 is nothing more than a veiled way to polarize voters in this coming election in November. Rick Perry depends upon the conservative Christian vote to keep his seat. If you're a Texan, and value your freedoms, make sure you're registered to vote in November. We need every sane individual we can at the polls to stop this juggernaut of Christianity that Rick Scarborough, Laurence White, James Dodson, and Rick Perry have constructed.
Which brings me to my headline: I say let's ban the institution of marriage in Texas. Change all marriages in Texas to civil unions, which would have the same rights and privileges as marriage currently holds. In one fell swoop we would eliminate the religious connotations of marriage from our state government, and remove all possible objections by Christians to same-sex marriage. Marriage belongs in the church, not in our state government.
Hungry? Here's some hot links:
http://tinyurl.com/dltjc
http://tinyurl.com/8qdon
http://tinyurl.com/e3gxt
http://tinyurl.com/cdsho