McCain Pressed to Clarify Stance on Marriage
By
WASHINGTON – Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain was pressed by an influential conservative pro-family group Monday to clarify his stance on marriage and life as it relates to his party’s existing platform.
McCain was asked to be more clear and firm on whether he supported the GOP’s platform supporting an amendment to the U.S. constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman.
Although McCain said he did support the GOP’s position on marriage on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes” last week, amendment supporters question his sincerity when he spoke about taking a federalist approach to the issue in which each state would set up its own legal definition of marriage.
"Last Thursday night, Senator McCain tepidly endorsed the GOP's platform concerning the protection of life and the preservation of marriage,” said Connie Mackey, Family Research Council Action’s senior vice president, in a statement.
“His response to this question as well as his federalist position regarding the definition of marriage leads one to believe that his endorsement is not definitive.”
The FRC Action vice president urged McCain to make it clear that he will maintain the Republican platform on marriage and life. The GOP supports a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. constitution that would provide legal protection for unborn children and outlaw abortion.
“When the reality of successful constitutional challenges threatens the family, the cornerstone of society, then the federal government needs to provide the foundation to guide the states," Mackey argues.
Pro-life groups have also pointed out that McCain has been unclear in his support for the party’s pro-life platform. McCain has said he wanted to maintain the GOP position but change it to allow abortion in the rare case of rape or incest. Also, the Arizona senator supports funding for embryonic stem cell research, which opponents liken to abortion because the embryo is destroyed in the process.
"John McCain should let us know that he understands there can be no ‘common ground’ between people who think it should be legal to kill babies before they are born and those who wish to protect their lives," Colleen Parro of the Republican National Coalition for Life said to LifeNews.com recently.
"If John McCain wants to unify the Party in order to win in November, he must begin by stating his unequivocal support for the pro-life plank," she added.
The Republican convention this summer will re-examine the party’s platform on abortion, funding for embryonic stem cell research, and other contentious issues in Minneapolis.
As the presumed GOP nominee, McCain is facing an uphill battle to win over his party’s social conservatives – an important voting bloc – who accuse him of being moderate and even liberal on the key “values voter” issues of life and marriage. His political stance on these issues as well as his friendly relationship with many Democrats has drawn the ire of well-known conservative radio talk show hosts and Christian right leaders.
But nationally, McCain seems to be doing well. A Gallup poll released Tuesday showed McCain has the highest favorable rating of any of the three major candidates running for president. Sixty-seven percent of Americans, a jump from 41 percent this past summer, said they have a favorable view of McCain. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll on Tuesday showed that he would be in a statistical dead heat in matchups with popular Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, he would capture 47 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent by McCain – a statistical tie given the poll’s three percent point margin of error, according to CNN. A matchup with Clinton would give her 49 percent of the vote compared to McCain’s 47 percent – again a statistical tie – the poll suggests.
"The fact that McCain is currently holding his own on the economy with the two Democratic candidates does help to explain why the general election matchups are so close even though most Americans think the country is in a recession," CNN polling director Keating Holland commented.
The economy is currently the top concern for many Americans and is most often cited as the biggest problem facing the nation, according to a Gallup Poll in March.
But ethical and moral issues remained among the top 10 most popular concerns listed by Americans according to the Gallup survey.
Most Commented Articles
- Planned Parenthood Promotes Mother's Day Abortions, Draws Protests
- Survey: Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons Differ Vastly from Born-Agains
- Evangelical Writers Challenged to Avoid Alienating the Unchurched
- 8 Myths About Evangelicals
- Why Some Leaders Won't Sign the Evangelical Manifesto
- Michigan Court Rules in Favor of Marriage
- Calif. Court Says 'Yes' to Gay 'Marriage'
- Calif. Court Says 'Yes' to Gay 'Marriage'
- Research Explores 'Evangelical Intelligentsia'
- UC Berkeley Staff Face Lawsuit Over Pro-Evolution Bias
- Green Evangelical Applauds McCain's Environment Speech
- Muslim 'Numbers Game' Proving Deadly for Christian Converts, Says Expert
- Obama Supports Campaign for N. Korean Refugees
- Deadly China Quake Triggers Rapid Responses, Calls for Prayer
- New Effort Gives Hope to Abortion Victims
- New Effort Gives Hope to Abortion Victims
- Calif. Court Says 'Yes' to Gay 'Marriage'
- Green Evangelical Applauds McCain's Environment Speech
- California's Top Court to Rule on Gay 'Marriage'
- Why Some Leaders Won't Sign the Evangelical Manifesto
Featured Advertiser Links
- 1031 Exchange Attorney
- Digital Praise - Completely Redesigned Dance Game with All Christian Music!
- Online Degrees from Accredited Colleges and Seminaries.
- Life Changes.. So Should your Life Insurance
- Christian Car-Boat-House Donations
- Deographics:Best Website Design
Custom Web Development, Get Your Free Quote Now.
- Christian Internet Broadcasting Network - Sermons, Ministry Resources,Movie,Worship,UCC video.
- Apostolos Campus Ministry
- Financial Freedom Change Your Financial State in 2008 100% Automated
- Christian Tshirt Printing
- Partners:
-
Comments
Unsubstantiated allegations are recklessly made. (ie: Dr. Dobson is against interracial marriages.) Throwing in everything argument including the "kitchen sink" about past justifications against interracial marriages does not weaken the strong arguments justifiying the position against same-sex "marriage."
Those are two separate issues & two very different historical contexts. Any attempts to try to smear one position using the other simply does not reflect sound reasoning. It's just "guilt by association."
No one will change anyone's mind through this exchange. A post-modern worldview will obviously clash with a biblical worldview.
Interracial marriages are not contrary to biblical principles. By contrast, same-sex "marriages" are contrary to biblical principles. Thousands of years of human history cast aside for the venture into a vast social experiment. Who will reap the negative consequences of such an experiment? The list could be endless...
It's great that folks have such strong views regarding the ministry of Focus on the Family. It just shows how God is using the ministry effectively as salt and light in a very anti-biblical culture and society. If a group was not effective, then who would even care what they do or say?
It's wonderful that the freedom exists to disagree and dialogue on the issue of same-sex
"marriage." However, once laws are passed to legalize such relationships then to quote another "great orator"...
Full Acceptance Will Be Mandatory:
1) My civil rights to object to homosexuality as an idea will be gone.
2) Same-sex relationships and homes are tolerated in society today. Our nation has no existing problem where same-sex couples are evicted from their neighborhoods because of how they live. Americans tolerate such relationships.
But this is not about mere tolerance. Instead it is about forcing everyone to fully accept these unnatural families.
3) Only months after legalizing same-sex “marriage” in Canada, activists there successfully passed C-250, a bill criminalizing public statements against homosexuality, punishable by up to two years in prison! Say the wrong thing; go to jail. The same will happen here.
4) Every public school in the nation would be forced to teach that same-sex “marriage” and homosexuality are perfectly normal –- Heather has Two Mommies in K-12. Pictures in text books will be changed to show same-sex couples as normal.
5) Your church will be legally pressured to perform same-sex weddings. When courts — as happened in Massachusetts — find same-sex “marriage” to be a constitutional and fundamental human right, the ACLU will successfully argue that the government is underwriting discrimination by offering tax exemptions to churches and synagogues that only honor natural marriage.
6) Gay and lesbian people have a right to form meaningful relationships. They don’t have a right to redefine marriage for all of us.
--By Glenn T. Stanton
Equally disgusting is your assessment that same-sex parenting amounts to "child-suffering." The most suffering a child faces in this situation is discrimination and hate from fascists or the children of fascists he/she would encounter at school--and that's not their problem, it's yours. This same kind of fear-mongering was used when interracial marriage was legalized and people didn't want to be "forced to accept it". And lies were spread that children of such marriages were doomed to miserable lives. Same lies, different people.
1) No society, at any time, has ever raised a generation of children in same-sex families.
2) Same-sex “marriage” will subject generations of children to the status of lab rats in (name of debate opponent’s) vast, untested social experiment.
But we know how the experiment will turn out:
1) America has raised millions of children in fatherless families for three decades and that experiment was a stunning failure by every measure!
2) We know how damaging it is to raise children in intentionally fatherless families. Let’s not create more child-suffering to satisfy adult desire.
How Your Same-sex Family Will Harm My Family
1) If this were just about your family, there would be no real danger. But same-sex “marriage” advocates are not seeking marriage for you alone, but rather demanding me — and all of us — to radically change our understanding of family. And that will do great damage.
2) Your same-sex family will teach my little boys and girls that husband/wife and mother/father are merely optional for the family and therefore, meaningless.
3) I will never allow my (grand) children to be taught that their gender doesn’t matter for the family. Their masculinity and femininity matter far too much, as does everyone’s in this auditorium.
--By Glenn T. Stanton
1) Same-sex families always deny children either their mother or father.
2) Same-sex family is a vast, untested social experiment with children.
3) Where does it stop? How do we say "no" to group marriage?
4) Schools will be forced to teach that the homosexual family is normal. Churches will be legally pressured to perform same-sex ceremonies.
Marriage Is Always About the Next Generation:
1) A loving and compassionate society always comes to the aid of motherless and fatherless families.
2) A loving and compassionate society never intentionally creates motherless or fatherless families, which is exactly what every same-sex home does.
3) The same-sex family is not driven by the needs of children, but rather by the radical wishes of a small group of adults.
4) No child development theory says children need two parents of the same gender, but rather that children need their mothers and fathers.
-By Glen T. Stanton