Catholic Chancery launches pro marriage website By Staff Feb 10, 2009 - 5:41:16 AM

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The Roman Catholic Chancery launched a website last week called the "Maine Marriage Initiative."  You can view it here.  The graphically appealing site is aimed at persuading Mainers to reject a legislative proposal by Senator Dennis Damon.

Damon wants to repeal Maine's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  Created in 1997 by referendum DOMA protects Maine from the radical agenda of homosexual activists who are now pushing to redefine marriage in the west.

The Catholic website is the creation of a political action committee (PAC) that is being formed by the Chancery.  The "About Us" page of the site indicates that the Maine Marriage Initiative is a "coalition of concerned Maine citizens committed to preserving traditional marriage in the state."  The "Q&A" section features video answers from Bishop Richard Malone.

Already in motion is the Maine Family Policy Council's PAC called "Marriage Matters in Maine", which anticipates the possibility of a referendum on this issue later this year.  A website is forthcoming, along with legal analysis of Senator Damon's bill.

Both efforts -- the Maine Marriage Initiative and Marriage Matters in Maine -- oppose the threat of same-sex marriage.

The Chancery's Maine Marriage Initiative allows that gay rights are a moral imperative.  Their "About Us" page includes the statement, "We believe that all Maine citizens are entitled to equal rights and respect regardless of their gender, race, creed or sexual orientation."  Sexual orientation is the artful term that has been used to enact into law all of the desires of homosexual activists in the past twenty years.  Marriage is their penultimate objective.

The homepage of the website states, "Proponents claim that it's about basic fairness, and that same-sex couples are denied rights offered to heterosexual couples.  But the truth is that Maine's Domestic Partnership laws already confer many of the rights offered to heterosexual couples to same-sex couples."

When domestic partnerships were created a few years ago, the Chancery highlighted the fact that the definition did not specifically name homosexuals as beneficiaries.  We rejected this line of reasoning because the definition also did not specifically forbid benefits to "same sex couples." 

The Maine Marriage Initiative attempts to deny the word "marriage" to same sex couples, yet advocates of homosexuality claim that it is legal discrimination to deny the rights and privileges of marriage to same sex couples in a state that forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.    In other words, to deny marriage to same-sex couples would be discriminatory.

The Chancery's strategy to defend marriage allows that legal rights for homosexuality are appropriate.  They are simply arguing that Senator Damon's proposal goes too far.  This same pragmatic argument was offered to the public during a Catholic led campaign to end partial birth abortion in Maine a few years ago.  During that campaign a television advertisement was created that featured a pro abortion woman saying that partial birth abortion just went too far.  They lost that campaign.

By contrast, the Maine Family Policy Council is the only institution in Maine that objected to the creation of domestic partnership rights that would confer the benefits of marriage on citizens who choose a homosexual lifestyle or identity.  The Chancery supported, and apparently still supports, domestic partnership benefits.  Maine's domestic partnership regime is as liberal as Vermont's civil union designation. 

The Maine Family Policy Council upholds and defends the dignity of every Maine citizen.  Sex outside of marriage will always be wrong and harmful to body, soul and spirit no matter what laws say.  Maine laws provided safety and protection to everyone long before liberals decided to work to change the way people think about sex.  The Maine Family Policy Council will always support the strong enforcement of laws against harassment.  We will never support laws that assign any sort of dignity or approval to immorality.  Sex outside of marriage is immoral.  Good laws are consistent with this fundamental reality while bad laws are not.

Politicians in the State House have offered little to stop the advance of the homosexual agenda in Maine law.  The Maine Republican Party neither spoke out nor campaigned to slow this devolution of sexual morals in Maine.  The Democratic Party has always advocated for "gays and lesbians" by using obfuscation, claiming that individuals have a civil right to sexual immorality.

For the past thirty years the unofficial policy of the Maine Republican Party has been to speak about their somewhat socially conservative platform planks, when asked.  Otherwise they have been silent.  Democrats, on the other hand, have worked hand-in-hand with the homosexual lobby.  They don't defend homosexuality, because then they would lose elections.  Instead they pretend there is such a thing as a civil right to sexual immorality.

The Maine Family Policy Council's board President, Pastor Jerry Mick, stated, “The MFPC has stood and will continue to stand against gay rights.  The institution of marriage is sacred and we are willing to join arms with all and any who will work toward preserving the institution of marriage.”

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