Friend,
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted to follow the Court in redefining marriage. Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening to bring up the “(Dis)Respect for Marriage Act” in the Senate. Shockingly, he may be close to getting the 10 Republican votes he needs to pass the bill and send it to President Biden’s desk.
I’m writing to urge you to weigh in with Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden today.
When the Supreme Court delivered its blow to marriage in 2015, burning down three dozen state laws and tearing up 50 million ballots, the GOP’s reaction was straightforward. Outrage. With a handful of exceptions, the response that echoed across the two coasts was a collective “How dare they?” As far as Republicans were concerned, what the five justices did on that June day was a betrayal of the people, our system of government, and the pillar that’s upheld society since the beginning of time. “It’s an injustice,” they railed. Now, seven years later, they finally have a chance to prove it. The question is: Will they?
Keep in mind that when the Supreme Court redefined marriage for America in 2015, we became only the 23rd country out of 195 to do so, and only one of seven to have it imposed upon us by a court. Still today, there are only 33 countries that have gone down this path of redefining marriage.
But as time has gone on, Republicans seem to have gotten increasingly comfortable letting the court decide an issue they argued was rightly theirs. That shock was driven home Tuesday when forty-seven House Republicans walked away from the party’s principles and platform to cast a vote for same-sex marriage. The list included a surprising number of our movement’s friends, men and women we never mistook as anything but conservative. Now, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), seeing political opportunity, is eager to drive an even deeper wedge — insisting he’ll move forward with his own vote if he can find 10 Republicans foolish enough to endorse it.
Twenty-four hours later, at least four Republicans had taken the bait, walking into a political trap that could very well eat into the margins the GOP needs in November. To no one’s surprise, liberal Republicans Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are on board, as well as outgoing Senator Rob Portman (Ohio). But the real bombshells started dropping Wednesday, when more conservatives seemed to be testing the waters on a radical issue that seven years ago they vehemently opposed. Names like Roy Blunt (Mo.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), and Thom Tillis (N.C.) started popping up in news stories as possible “yes”es. Then Ron Johnson (Wisc.) announced his support for the bill.
Just as astounding, only eight Republicans have jumped to marriage’s defense: Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) who spoke to Punchbowl News, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
A whopping 37, many of them pro-family stalwarts, are either “undecided” or unresponsive, CNN reports. It’s an eerie silence from dozens of Republicans, who — just seven years ago — left zero doubts about where they stood. (By contrast, click here to read some of their statements back in 2015, when the Supreme Court attempted to redefine marriage.)
What’s changed? Certainly not the significance of marriage or the Constitution. Not the party’s platform or the role of states’ rights. If anything’s changed, it’s the ferocious war being waged against our children’s innocence, religious freedom, parents, and human biology. What’s changed is that we have a Republican Party willing to go to the mat for sports but seemingly unwilling to stand up for an institution whose redefinition has ignited a firestorm of persecution in America — the same redefinition that’s at the bitter root of so many evils we’re fighting today in school classrooms, public libraries, our daughters’ locker rooms.
Seven years from now, will we be saying that those issues don’t matter? That the world has “moved on?” That we know someone who’s transgender, and the only way we can love them is to hand society over to their delusions?
If Republicans want to stick their finger in the cultural winds to decide where they stand on timeless truths, then they are throwing away everything the American people have come to respect about today’s party — their courage, their common sense, their conviction. Maybe these senators think that linking arms with the Left makes them seem more compassionate or contemporary. But real leaders don’t vote out of fear or political calculus. They don’t take their cues from the courts or public opinion. They do what’s right, no matter what it costs them. That’s what voters respect. And that’s what voters, who have stood by this party’s values, deserve.
Rest assured, FRC Action will not change with the prevailing winds. But we need your help. Will you join us by contacting Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden today? My friends on the Hill tell me that even some of our stalwart friends may waiver; they need to hear from you.
Standing (Ephesians 6:13),
Tony Perkins
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