• President's Message
• Religious Leaders Unite for Marriage
• May Day for Marriage
• Religious Freedom, Hate Crime and International Norms
• Protect Our Religious Freedoms: Host a Cottage Meeting
• Arizona Legislative Update
• An Evening Out With United Families Arizona
• Upcoming Events

President's Message

Recently, in an unprecedented stand of unity, fifty religious leaders from across the United States stood together in firm support of a Federal Constitutional Amendment to protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Obviously, this religious coalition's endorsement of a federal amendment will indirectly lend great support to the amendment process that United Families has worked so hard to promote here in Arizona. However, that needed support was not the only thing that caught my attention in the coalition's letter. As I read through the names and denominations that were represented in the coalition, I was profoundly grateful for the respect for religious liberty evidenced by this letter. United Families continues to advocate in behalf of this important principle.

Often, when religion is mentioned in connection with government people cry, "Separation of church and State!" It is even falsely assumed by many that this statement appears in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. Contrary to this widespread misconception, the First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The purpose of the First Amendment was not to establish freedom from religion but to establish freedom for religion.

Religious beliefs, unless they prompt infringement upon the rights and liberties of others, have many valuable functions in a healthy society. Religion is one of the surest reinforcements of responsible government--more important than laws or social conventions--because belief in a God or Supreme Being provides a powerful restraint on human behavior that cannot be replicated through external mandates such as laws or social conventions. Religion assists parents in raising honorable and productive citizens and religion plays an integral role in preserving the strength of America.

An old adage states, "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

As Americans it should be our constant aim and objective to encourage and promote religious freedom and activity. One sure way to protect our families is to protect religious liberty.

Warm Regards,

Carol Soelberg

Religious Leaders Unite for Marriage

The Religious Coalition for Marriage is an ad hoc, interfaith committee of America's Religious Leaders who share a common concern for the well-being of marriage in our nation. The following quotes can be found on the coalition website at www.religiouscoalitionformarriage.org

"Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race."
- The Southern Baptist Convention

"…It is right and proper that the church should respond to such queries by bearing witness to the biblical truth that civil laws and courts should promote and protect marriage as a unique, male-female, monogamous community of two because of the way it propagates the human race and benefits the public in so many other ways."
-The Presbyterian Church in America

"Be it resolved, The NHCLC, the Board of Directors, its members and officials, hereby reaffirm the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman and duly render our full support to our President George W. Bush in amending our Nation's Constitution with such that will preserve this sacred institution and enhance the moral ethos of our nation."
-The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

"We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman. We believe that God's blessing rests upon such marriage, whether or not there are children of the union. We reject social norms that assume different standards for women than for men in marriage. We support laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
- United Methodist Church

"The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America upholds heterosexual marriage as the appropriate context for intimate sexual expression… Marriage is a lifelong covenant of faithfulness between a man and a woman. In marriage, two persons become 'one flesh'; a personal and sexual union that embodies God's loving purpose to create and enrich life. By the gift of marriage God 'founded human community in a joy that begins now and is brought to perfection in the life to come.'"
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

"As a doctrinal principle, based on sacred scripture, we affirm that marriage between a man and a woman is essential to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children. The powers of procreation are to be exercised only between a man and a woman lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Any other sexual relations, including those between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of the family. The Church accordingly favors measures that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and that do not confer legal status on any other sexual relationship."
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

United Families Arizona, in conjunction with
Protect Marriage Arizona is hosting

MAY DAY FOR MARRIAGE

On Wednesday, May 17th

This date marks one year since the launch of the Protect Marriage Arizona Initiative.

We need your help!!!

Please join us and family supporters throughout the state in distributing, collecting and submitting petitions at a location convenient for you. Please check the list of locations to find the site nearest you and join us in our efforts to protect marriage.

You'll be glad you did your part to protect marriage in Arizona.

This is only a partial list of available sites. Other locations will be added. Please check our website for the location nearest you.

Religious Freedom, Hate Crime and International Norms

By Marcia Barlow

When Swedish pastor Ake Green was arrested and sentenced to one month in prison (June 2004) for preaching against homosexuality from the pulpit at his church, most Americans simply shook their head and confidently said, "Well, that could never happen in the U.S." Ake Green was the first pastor prosecuted for a "hate crime" after the Swedish government added "sexual orientation" to its hate crime law in 2003.

The public prosecutor, Kjell Yngvesson, justified the arrest by saying, "Collecting Bible [verses] on this topic as he does makes this hate speech." Ake Green's attorney, Benjamin Bull, stated: "Sweden does have a law protecting religious freedom, but they have also passed a law making it a crime to engage in public statements against persons based on their sexual orientation." Contradictory laws. Fortunately for Pastor Green, religious freedom carried the day, and last November Green was acquitted.

Individuals in other parts of the world have not been as fortunate--particularly in Canada. With the recent legalization of same-sex "marriage" and the passage of the C-250 hate crime law, Canadian citizens have been prosecuted and given stiff sentences for promoting "hate" when in reality these individuals were only opposing the promotion of homosexuality and same-sex "marriage."

So could a citizen of the U.S. be prosecuted for expressing their beliefs regarding homosexuality?

Hate Crime Law

"Hate crime" laws are the perfect vehicle to silence people who publicly oppose homosexuality. Hate crime legislation, with the inclusion of "sexual orientation," is regularly being introduced in the United States.

"Hate crime" laws are unnecessary. Criminal acts are already illegal. A crime is a crime is a crime… and the law should apply equally to all groups of people regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or their sexual orientation. Why should someone who abuses an elderly woman get a lesser punishment than someone who abuses a homosexual? Hate crimes legislation creates unequal protection under the law, allows additional punishment for what a person "thinks," and has the potential to abridge freedoms of religion, speech, and association.

Human Rights Tribunals

There is an international effort well underway to create a new human right: sexual orientation. If homosexual advocacy groups are successful in their attempts to have "sexual orientation" written into international human rights documents as a protected class, then any perceived "crime" against homosexuals is prosecutable under international tribunals including the International Criminal Court (ICC). The International Criminal Court is purported to have jurisdiction even over countries that have not signed onto the ICC. This combined with our current climate of judicial activism, where we see U.S. judges looking to international precedent to develop their interpretation of U.S. law, creates a situation that all Americans need to watch closely.

What is the definition of Sexual Orientation?

There is no legal definition of sexual orientation at the national or the international level. The American Psychiatric Association lists 23 clinically-recognized "sexual orientations" including bestiality, voyeurism, pedophilia, necrophilia, sexual sadism….* Need I say more?

Beware the Trojan Horse of "sexual orientation" and its potential to negatively impact religious freedom. United Families of Arizona will continue to work to keep you informed when this type of legislation rears its dangerous head.

* Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000), pp. 566-582.].

Protect Our Religious Freedoms:
Host a Cottage Meeting

By Marcia Barlow

"We have before us the battle of the century. We must secure marriage and
families through a constitutional amendment. It is our only hope for
stopping activist judges from forcing same-sex 'marriage' on the American
people. If we don't stop them, we can loose our religious liberty, our
freedom of speech, and we can expect social chaos in three generations."

So begins the Cottage Meeting presentation "Marriage and the Family Under Siege: Why we Need a Federal Marriage Amendment."

Although our nation was dedicated to God at its inception and the Constitution formulated with an emphasis upon religious freedom and expression, current efforts continue to take any vestige of the Judeo-Christian God from the public square (removal of "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, removal of Ten Commandments plaques, nativity displays, etc.) and organizations who operate from traditional moral or religious principles, such as the Boys Scouts of America, find themselves under attack. Now we can add marriage to the list. So, "Why should we care about maintaining traditional marriage?" Perhaps the question is best answered by taking a look at the "same-sex 'marriage' experimental lab" that we also know as the state of Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, where same-sex "marriage" has been legalized by activist judges, homosexual relationships are now deemed the equivalent of heterosexual relationships. Thus, individuals and organizations who don't agree with this new formulation of marriage and society find themselves in a precarious position. Just a few examples:

• Homosexual behavior, lifestyle and "marriage" is being taught as normal and desirable and it is being infused into all school curricula--remember--homosexuality and heterosexuality are now deemed equivalent in the eyes of the law. Parents who believe and teach their children otherwise are finding themselves accused of bigotry, being discriminatory, and in the case of one Massachusetts father, spending some time in jail and being barred from school property.
• In 2005, a tax-payer funded homosexual education conference sponsored by a Boston area Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) handed out their "Little Black Book" to Jr. High and High School students. The little black book entitled "Being Gay in the 21st Century" exposed students to pornographic materials encouraging homosexual acts.
• The 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals, just this spring, ruled against a parent's right to have a say about what their children are taught in school sex-ed programs. Included in the ruling was the statement "parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools..." This creates legal precedent that could have ramifications nationwide, particularly in Massachusetts.
• A Cape Cod fire engineer was fired after signing a pro-traditional marriage petition. Newly "married" homosexual, Selectman Paul Asher-Best voted to remove the fireman and justified his action by stating, "If you think I'm not entitled to civil marriage, then the only conclusion I can draw is that you don't think I'm fully human, or that my humanity is on par with yours."
• The Catholic Church in Massachusetts closed their adoption agency rather than be forced by the state to place orphaned children in homosexual households. This happened in spite of Gov. Mitt Romney's best efforts to obtain a religious exemption for the church.

There are many that assume there will be little to no impact upon society as a whole if same-sex couples are allowed to marry, but one cannot ignore the fact that homosexual behavior/same-sex "marriage" and traditional religious doctrine regarding homosexuality are incompatible. If you put in place law that validates homosexual "marriage" (making it equal to heterosexuality under the law) you invalidate religious teachings against same-sex "marriage" and the state cannot remain neutral. The state will be compelled to enforce equality as defined by the law.

United Families of Arizona sponsors Cottage Meetings to allow you, your family and your friends to become more educated on "Why we need a Marriage Amendment." Contact us for the opportunity to host a Cottage Meeting in your home, club or organization.

Arizona Legislative Update

By Daniel H. Walker

The legislative report this month overall is somewhat disappointing and should serve as a call to action for those in support of family. The hopes of a positive report on two of the pieces of legislation we've been following were dashed when Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed each bill along with a host of other bills. The third bill failed to make it out of the Senate.

In a solid display of support for the family, the Arizona legislature passed SB 1325 called "No Taxpayer money for Abortions" and HB 2666 requiring notarized parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion. Gov. Napolitano vetoed these bills on April 17, 2006, stating that these pieces of legislation were, respectively, overly restrictive and unnecessary. Supporters of these and similar bills will likely have to demonstrate their discontent by voting in November's gubernatorial election.

The third bill, HB 2696, that would have established a preference for married couples when considering applications for adoption, failed to make it out of the Senate. You can express your disappointment by calling your Senator using the legislature's switchboard at 602-926-4221.

The unfortunate fate of these bills highlights the fact that opposition to family and pro-family issues in the state of Arizona is significant and exists at all levels of government and society. Those who favor family and want to see passage of the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment and other pro-family measures in Arizona must put forth a concerted, united effort to overcome this significant opposition.

Watch this space for ways you can help!

An Evening Out With United Families Arizona

United Families Arizona is pleased to host an evening with

Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D

Author of LOVE & ECONOMICS Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work and renowned speaker on love, marriage, sexuality and the family

Friday, June 16th

Please look for more information on this great event coming soon.
To learn more about our fantastic speaker visit www.jennifer-roback-morse.com

Upcoming Events

The following list of events includes terrific opportunities to obtain signatures for Protect Marriage Arizona. With only 7 weeks remaining, we need to collect as many signatures as possible. Please contact Emma Ray, our Volunteer Coordinator (emmajaneray@gmail.com), with questions or to add events to the calendar.

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