Seth Udinski, FISM News
Christian and conservative groups are sounding the alarm as the political momentum of the “Respect for Marriage Act” continues to grow.
A group of 83 religious organizations penned a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pleading with him to lead the Republican Senate contingent to stand united in opposition against the legislation, saying that it would essentially remove all moral barriers to marriage at the federal level.
FISM News previously reported that several Republican senators voiced their support of the bill, though it still looks likely that it will fail to get the necessary 60 votes to clear the filibuster and pass in the Senate.
Officially titled HB 8404, the bill would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage. It would also recognize any state marriage law as legitimate and force all states to recognize marriages legally performed in other states.
Some have pointed out that the end result of this would be that if one state decides to legalize polygamy or child marriage, for example, then the federal government would force all states to also recognize those marriages performed in that state as legal and legitimate.
It would also confirm the fears of many conservative sociologists, who have warned that the next domino to fall in the seemingly unstoppable wave of the sexual revolution is legalized pedophilia. If passed, the bill would, also give legal protection to an adult who marries a legal minor so long as there is parental consent for the child under state law.
Senator James Lankford (R-Okla) vowed to vote against the bill. He expressed in an interview on Washington Watch with political analyst Tony Perkins that the bill is an attempt to weaponize the legal definition of marriage against the Judeo-Christian worldview.
“The far-left is trying to say, ‘we want to be able to push this to the next step and take it where it has not ever gone before.’ And we are going to absolutely oppose that,” Sen. Langford said.
The letter to McConnell further details the egregious steps taken in this latest push from the far left to change the definition of marriage.
The letter states,
As the heads of national and state organizations leading the effort to protect life, religious liberty, free speech, and the family, we write to denounce H.R. 8404, the so-called ‘Respect for Marriage Act,’ in the strongest possible terms. The Act, which was suddenly rushed through the House without any public hearings or input, is an attack on millions of Americans, particularly people of faith, who believe marriage is between one man and one woman and that legitimate distinctions exist between men and women concerning family formation that should be recognized in the law.
Alongside the normalization of pedophilia, polygamy, and other violations of current marriage law, the bill would seek to ostracize anyone who opposes it. That would include everyone who holds to a biblical definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.
The letter to McConnell also highlights the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision of 2015, which effectively legalized gay marriage nationally.
“The truth is, while H.R. 8404 does nothing to change the status of, or benefits afforded to, same-sex marriage in light of Obergefell, it does much to endanger people of faith. Justice Alito was right when he predicted the Obergefell decision would ‘be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy,'” the letter states.
“We are seeing this play out more and more against those who decline to openly embrace extreme views regarding marriage and human sexuality. This legislation will only hasten and intensify hostility against them. As such, anyone who supports this measure is crossing a line into aiding and abetting the persecution of people of faith.”
Biblical context
From the creation of humankind, God has expressed His design for marriage, as being a union between one man and one woman.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24, NASB)
Jesus quoted this same passage when asked if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason.
And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’ (Matthew 19:4-6)