The gap is widening, we’re told. The number of Americans in favor of same-sex “marriage” is growing. Sooner or later, so-called same-sex “marriage” will be the law of the land. There’s no stopping it.
But not so fast. On June 16, the Alliance Defense Fund and Public Opinion Strategies released the results of a new scientific survey that calls all that into question.
The survey “was part of a comprehensive examination of American attitudes toward marriage,” which included both polling and focus groups for added accuracy.
The results? A full sixty-two percent of Americans agreed that “marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman.” Fifty-three percent “strongly agreed.”
This is consistent with polling going back to 1998, when Alaska and Hawaii were the first two states to enact marriage amendments. Since then there have been thirty-one state referenda defining marriage as one man and one woman. Over sixty-three million Americans have voted, with nearly forty million or sixty-three percent voting for traditional marriage.
Alliance Defense Fund’s Senior Counsel Brian Raum (pronounced RAHM’) noted, “Americans recognize that marriage provides a strong foundation for a thriving society,” and that we “strongly affirm the lifelong, faithful union of a man and a woman as the fundamental building block of civilization.”
What about all we’ve heard from the mainstream media about more and more Americans supporting same-sex “marriage”? The survey along with victories in courts, says Raum, “shows [that] the opposition has created an illusion of momentum, but not a real base of support or track record.”
The idea that Americans are losing their faith in marriage between one man and one woman is little more than public relations spin on a hollow claim.
And yet, the state of New York, egged on by Governor Andrew Cuomo, has just foisted same-sex “marriage” on the Empire State. Said State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, “What we’re about to do is redefine what the American family is. And that’s a good thing.”
Senator Kruger is right about one thing: redefining marriage and family is precisely what the same-sex “marriage” debate is all about. But as to his claim that it’s “a good thing,” he’s dead wrong.
As the Manhattan Declaration affirms, “Marriage [between one man and one woman]… is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all human institutions have their foundation.” It goes on to say, “Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves.”
If same-sex “marriage” advocates are successful in spite of their meager support, make no mistake, those pathologies will only grow.
Three cheers for Alliance Defense Fund for bringing the truth to light. Americans favor traditional marriage by nearly two to one. Raise your voices, folks. Same-sex “marriage” isn’t inevitable at all.
This article published on June 30, 2011. Chuck Colson's daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
