NJ Statewide Citizens Rally to Protect Marriage

I took the 3 oldest boys to a rally this afternoon, on the steps of the NJ State Capitol, the topic was preserving traditional marriage. NJ currently legalizes so-called "civil unions", which provide almost all of the rights granted to married couples under New Jersey state law (though no rights under federal law). However, with all of the activity going on around the country (Massachusetts, Connecticut, California), there is growing concern that pro-gay rights activists will continue to push further, until they can redefine marriage completely.

Ultimately, the goal of the rally was to mobilize New Jersey citizens to petition the Legislature to pass a State Constitutional Amendment protecting marriage, which already exists in 27 other states (click here for more info on the status of marriage in other states).

I would estimate that there were about 1,000 people in attendance at the rally.

Anybody who's wondering what's the harm in legalizing same-sex "marriage" or how it might affect your life, here are two examples:

• A religious leader in Sweden who taught from the pulpit that homosexuality was wrong and counter to God's commandments was imprisoned for 30 days for engaging in speech that violated the rights of homosexual people.

• One of the speakers at the rally told of a lesbian first-grade teacher in San Francisco that recently brought her class to witness her "marriage" ceremony. First graders!!

This is only the beginning. We are on a path that feels like it could ultimately pit our basic principles of morality against that of the selfish interests of the overwhelming minority, our religious beliefs against trendy social and governmental ideals of political correctness, diversity and equality. I imagine the founding fathers of our nation are probably rolling over in their graves.

There were many organizations that supported this rally, and their latest initiative was to launch an electronic petition. When you sign the E-Petition, an e-mail will immediately be sent to approximately 35 key elected officials in the NJ State Legislature, including your own three state representatives, two Assemblypersons and your State Senator from your legislative district. It will ask them to give you the right to vote on a State Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. If you're interested in signing this petition, here's the link:

http://www.preservemarriagenj.org

Finally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fully supports legislative and other political efforts that will support preservation of the definition of traditional marriage (click here for the Church's take on this issue).

Even though I described above this effort to re-define marriage as "trendy", it is much more serious than that. There is a very real, concerted, systematic and well-thought plan to undermine and ultimately destroy the long-subscribed to and time-tested consensus that the traditional family (husband, wife, children) is the fundamental and most important unit of a successful society. I believe it to be our sacred responsibility to do everything in our power to stop this attack.