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Loading ...Latino church leaders join crusade for Florida anti-gay amendment
10.02.2008 10:52pm EDT
(Miami, Florida) Latino church leaders from a variety of denominations have joined a religious umbrella group to advocate for a proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage in Florida.
Latinos represent a massive voting block in the state and advocates for the amendment say the support of religious leaders will help at the polls in November.The Latino church leaders include Diocese of Miami Auxiliary Bishop Felipe J. Esteves; El Rey Jesus Church Pastor Guillermo Maldonado; and Riverside Baptist Church Pastor Otto Fernandez.
“There is nothing more sacred than that of the union of a man and woman joined in holy matrimony,” said Bishop Esteves in a statement. “I pray that Floridians join us in ensuring that marriage is defined by people and not the court system.”
Pastor Fernandez said the amendment would protect the rights of children.
“Same sex marriage subjects our children to a vast untested social experiment,” Fernandez said. “According to numerous studies from around the world, evidences collected over decades show that children need both mothers and fathers and the breakdown of marriage in the United States has had a devastating effect on society, especially on children. Marriage protects our children by giving them the best chance for both a mother and a father.”
The proposed amendment says, “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”
Florida already has a law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples but supporters of the amendment say the law could be overturned in court.
Opponents of the proposed amendment say in addition to barring gay marriage it would bar civil unions and would be used to deny partner benefits not only to same-sex couples but also to unmarried couples who live together.
Yes2Marriage, the group backing the amendment call the assertion it would impact opposite-sex unmarried couples a red herring.
“The gay activists are curiously running as far away from the idea of ‘gay marriage’ as they can. They know they have no chance at even trying to prevail if they debate this issue straight up. Instead they have resorted to scare tactics aimed at Florida’s most vulnerable citizens – our seniors,” said campaign chair John Stemberger.
“We are calling upon all faith leaders to educate and protect their senior citizen communities from the avalanche of fraud and deception that they will see on TV, radio and in phone calls.”
Last month moderate religious leaders from across Florida began speaking out against the proposed amendment.
Dozens of pastors and rabbis met in meetings in six areas statewide this week to denounce the proposed amendment, saying they will tell their congregations to vote against it in November.
Last year it was discovered that the state GOP was bankrolling the amendment effort.
An investigation by the St. Petersburg Times into funding for the Florida4Marriage found that of the $193,000 that had been raised by the group $150,000 came from a single donor – the Florida Republican Party.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last month found that 55 percent of voters support the amendment – short of the 60 percent needed to amend the constitution.
Stupid and dangerous religious bigots come in all colors, from all religions, and from all parts of the world.
Its a shame these “regigious leaders” don’t realize that the people voting for this amendment also the same poeople likely to vote for a law to kick out their immigrant brothers and sisters who have recently come to the US from Latin America.
Why isn’t the ACLU filing lawsuits against religious and secular anti-GLBT organizations for engaging in conspiracy to abridge our constitutional rights? Hello! Ricco Law?
Cheers,
Bud Clark
San Diego CA USA
Send them back to their country.
As a latino gay man, it makes sad to read this becuse even though the Latino population is very religious its also very divers and tolarent. Its just a crazy world we live in.
People are willing to vote on who wants to marry a millionair. But theya re not willing to except when to people are in love and want to be commited to just one person.
I was afraid of this..but just get the young people out there defending the CIVIL RIGHTS of their friends! I have seen it here in my daughters age group of Catholic school mates..they were taught by their CATHOLIC teachers to respect the private rights of their peers. They are an active mobile forces to recruit to be a foundation of change…after all they are at the ‘break away’ from paternalism age anyway.
In this case PEER pressure can be very good.
this is why i quit supporting the minority rights of blacks & hispanics this year. i’m fed up with them all!!! i now support a border fence for the u.s. south & the curtailing of immigration to 0% a year. if we can go over 100 years with not bringing in our loved ones why can’t the heteros? the only heterosexual minorities i want to be friends with are asian americans who in the polls i’ve seen in california support equal marriage rights for us to the tune of 55%(the other 45% can go to hell). of course i care about the gay racial minorities who are fair-minded but screw the mean “due process hating” rest. i’m tired of listening to them hate on us. if they’re so paranoid of us being treated like every hetero-american then let them go back to their ancestrial homeland.”all men are create equal” means nothing to them! they advocate breaking the law when it comes to illegals getting driver’s licenses but can’t obey the law of the constitution when it comes to equal treatment of glbt’s.also the log cabinites say to work within both parties to achieve equality,well how do they swallow the $150,000 donation by the “coming around eventually crowd” that help put this nasty amendment on the ballot? thank you uncle toms for helping our enemies bash us yet again!!! how much of that money came from you guys? $1,500? 15,000? 1 penny was to much to give. maybe if it fails in november,they can help fund the kkk next time around & get it on the ballot yet again. I’m so sick of how u.s. politics is getting meaner,dumber & more pathetic. does anyone else out there agree with me?
No.
James
If these churches believe they need to be involved in politics of same sex marriages, then they should lose their non-profit status. Fair is fair.
Wow, way to support the as you said, “blacks & latinos”. What a racist bigot you are. There are many African Americans born in the United States, as well as latinosjborn here. I understand that you don’t want illegal immigrants, but for the African Americans and Latinos that live here and born here, you should have respect for them. I’m a gay white man, and I’m sick of us pointing fingers at everyone except ourselves. You need to go to some type of counseling for such a bad attitude.
This is a violation of our constition. Religious leaders should not be taking up politics at all. They should be stripped of their tax status and be forced to pay taxes. That is a law they are violating. Someone please let others know about this and make it known to the general public and media what these bigots are doing. It’s criminal.
Since it has not been said here, if marriage is such a sacred tradition, why does it show in a 1994 study that Florida was in the Top 10 for divorce rates in the country? From January-September 2006, Florida had the HIGHEST rate of divorces (from states that participated in the study) at 66,712, per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. If marriage is so sacred and honored, how come there is so many divorces?? Why don’t the religious zealots first focus on that, before going off on their bigoted, self-centered quest, wearing their mixed-fiber clothes, while eating shrimp?
How dare they! I love the way minorities get pitted against each other in the name of religion. These people need to WAKE UP. And this crap:
<<>>
What they fail to say is that these studies don on the “breakdown of marriages” have been done on STRAIGHT MARRIAGES. We gays haven’t had the luxury until recently, so that crap in not relevant.
A child needs a loving and nurturing home environment, NOT A ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN QUOTA.
You know what’s really sad? These groups are spending millions of $ trying to deny us our rights. Think what they could be doing with that money…
[freaking] Cubans! GO BACK TO CUBA AND LEAVE FLORIDA TO AMERICANS!
“There is nothing more sacred than that of the union of a man and woman joined in holy matrimony,” said Bishop Esteves in a statement. “I pray that Floridians join us in ensuring that marriage is defined by people and not the court system.”
First, the courts are made up of people, very learned people (mostly, anyway), who study the law and rule according to previous cases and precedents, all of which are ultimately based on the U.S. Constitution. It is their assigned duties to specifically looks at the cases and to make just, legal and meaningful rulings. Because of this, we are not a country that has absolute majority rule. The court system was established to protect any “suspect minorities” from a “tyranny of the majority”. So, we must fight out same-sex marriage in the courts, and eventually we will have the associated rights whether any religious groups like it or not. One claims a court I legislating from the bench only when one does not agree with their rulings, and of course, all court cases ultimately are legislative rulings, including those where they say the courts only “interpret the constitution”. It is the nature of the beast. Courts are not designed to be rubber stamps of executive proclamations and legislative motions. To do so would remove the checks and balances we so desperately need to keep tyrants in check.
And I agree that marriage between any two people, mixed-sex or same-sex should be considered “holy”. Having laws allowing same-sex marriage in ABSOLUTELY no way diminishes anything “holy” about mixed-sex marriages, and in ABSOLUTELY NO way does it interfere with them. Anyone who says otherwise is simply a tyrant and a control freak. They are completely in error to think otherwise.
That said, every person who chooses a religion does just that: THEY CHOOSE RELIGION. Religion does not choose them. And thusly, their choice affords them no special place or status in society. They need to get over themselves and quit listening to the brainwashing done by their “no-so-holy-than-thou” cleric leaders.
So let it be known to everyone, religious or not, that because a person chooses their religion, and adopts the ways and policies of their chosen religion, their choice ABSOLUTELY:
(1) does NOT give them a superior moral position over anyone else.
(2) does NOT endow them with a monopoly on good, kind, ethical and high moral behavior,
(3) does NOT transfer to them a position of authority over any other human being.
(4) does NOT allow them to become judge and jury over any other person or group.
(5) does NOT grant them any privileges to spew hateful speech, to incite hateful actions, or to manifest hurtful actions or evil deeds against another.
(6) does NOT authorize them to act with discrimination, picking and choosing whom they believe to be virtuous and faultless, or the opposite.
(7) does NOT pardon them for their discriminatory behavior.
(8) does NOT authorize their so-called “sacred” texts to have any superior status over the secular laws of the land.
(9) does NOT allocate to them any preferential status within the United States government or governments of the States or its local communities.
(10) does NOT allow them to act contrary to law, or against another person, without rebuke or reprisal.
Please take this list and apply it to all religious organization so they will begin to understand their status with our society. I do not wish to belittle their religion, but then again, I require that they do not diminish me or any other “suspect minority” which they may dispute. I demand to be treated with dignity, and they must comply, and according to law or court ruling, as the case may be.
Let it be written; let it be done, NOW.
To Opinionator: Amen, Brother! Well done.