E-Mail This Article to a Friend MARRIAGE DEBATE Lining up the opposition BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

Hours before the Coalition for Marriage — an alliance of 15 conservative and religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage — made its official debut last week, dozens of people filed into the auditorium at Tremont Temple Baptist Church, in Boston, to deal with the secular debate over gay marriage in Massachusetts in the most non-secular way: by "experiencing God." Indeed, during a two-hour "clergy gathering" sponsored by the coalition on January 7, close to 100 pastors, clergy members, and laypeople invoked "the Lord" in collective prayer. They prayed for those "leading a charge with your trumpet" to thwart the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which last November granted gay and lesbian couples a constitutional right to marry. They prayed for "boldness in the lives" of those willing to stand against it. And they prayed for legislators to succumb to a change of heart "to support the foundation of marriage."

Of course, the well-attended event wasn’t all about prayer. A lot of it had to do with the very antithesis of reliance on divine intervention: political activism. Hosted by the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) and its national affiliate Focus on the Family (FOF) — a right-wing organization dedicated to the notion that gay men and lesbians can "come out of the homosexual lifestyle" — the Boston clergy gathering featured its share of activist pep talks by some prominent foes of same-sex marriage from here and across the country. Tom Minnery, FOF’s vice-president of public policy, spent a solid 30 minutes picking apart the SJC’s ruling, which he described as "closely divided. You could not have imagined two sides more opposed." Tall and lanky, with exceedingly large ears, Minnery spoke in a spirited, deliberate tone. He railed against the court’s conclusion that barring gay and lesbian couples from marrying was "rooted in persistent prejudices against homosexuals," as Chief Justice Margaret Marshall wrote for the four-justice majority. What, he wondered, about "God’s view" of marriage as a man and a woman joining to procreate? "That standard," he observed, with indignation, "is now reduced to irrational prejudice." Then, as Minnery turned to the Goodridge dissent — highlighting the "great pains" that the three justices had taken to warn against same-sex parenting — his voice grew shrill and his arms flailed wildly. In a predictable rallying cry, he finally invoked "the children": "Christians are facing a threat to the welfare of children. Massachusetts is about to say it doesn’t matter if a child has a mother and a father."

Aside from such pseudo-legal lecturing, the event also featured a lobbying tutorial given by MFI president and newly minted coalition spokesperson Ronald Crews. A bespectacled, mustachioed man, Crews had his aides distribute a 20-page "Citizens Action Guide to Preserving Marriage in Massachusetts," complete with "talking points" on the issue, a list of all 200 state legislators, and sample letters in favor of the MFI-authored constitutional amendment that would define marriage as "the union of one man and one woman." He zeroed in on the religious leaders in the crowd, urging them to "lead your flock by example." Write letters to newspapers, he suggested. Host anti-gay-marriage forums. Call local legislators. He then offered up these words of advice: "Our job is to be faithful to our beliefs.... The basic institution of marriage is under attack, and the church is the last line of defense."

Despite such martial rhetoric, however, last Wednesday’s event was imbued with a feeling of moralizing and supplication. The crowd, made up of men and women, college students and senior citizens, black preachers and white pastors, swayed to organ music while singing hymns ("I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you"). They closed eyes and clasped hands while asking for divine blessings ("God give us a heart of faithfulness"). And they shouted words of affirmation — "Amen" and "Sweet Jesus" — while listening to speakers sermonize about the "power of God."

Speakers like Bishop Gilbert Thompson, pastor of the New Covenant Christian Church, in Roxbury, and a member of the Black Ministerial Alliance. Upon taking the stage, Thompson, dressed in a black suit and a white collar, opened his Bible and launched into Scripture. "Woe to them," he proclaimed, likening the Goodridge majority to those the Book of Isaiah warned against, "who say, ‘Evil is good and good is evil.’" The SJC, he said, is redefining marriage, and those "with a moral consciousness are standing together" to reject this. As the bishop delivered his sermon — insisting that his stand is "not against gay rights," but rather an assertion that "gays do not have the right to redefine" traditional marriage — he set his hands on the podium and leaned forward. He asked the crowd to join hands. And he closed with another prayer:

Pray in the name of Jesus you’ll move over us and direct our steps.

Pray in the name of Jesus you’ll open the eyes of those spiritually blind.

Pray in the name of Jesus you’ll help those in social and political power to understand what they’re doing. Pray that they see the truth. Pray that the light of your world will shine forth and transform the darkness being voted on and espoused today.

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Less than an hour after Bishop Thompson made his impassioned plea to the heavens, he stood before a standing-room-only crowd crammed into a hearing room at the Massachusetts State House. By his side were many of the players from the clergy gathering, including the MFI’s Crews and the FOF’s Minnery. Behind him appeared scores of wholesome-looking families — mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, all wearing yellow buttons that read SUPPORT ONE MAN ONE WOMAN.

This was the Coalition for Marriage’s official unveiling, and, unlike the earlier clergy gathering, it attracted flocks of local media. From behind a dense thicket of lights, cameras, and microphones, Crews introduced himself and his fellow members as a group determined to "support the definition of marriage as one man and one woman." In an attempt to paint the coalition as mainstream, he announced the partial results of a December poll which found that 69 percent of Massachusetts voters believe they should be able to vote on the MFI’s anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment — something the legislature will consider at a February 11 Constitutional Convention. The poll also found that 52 percent of voters believe marriage should be restricted to heterosexual couples. (Less than 24 hours later, reporters got their hands on the full polling data, which revealed that a narrow majority of respondents actually opposed the amendment, 49 to 48 percent.)

"Real people understand that marriage and society are inextricably linked," Crews told a responsive crowd, many of whom shouted "Amen," "Hallelujah," and "Praise God" as he outlined the data. Motioning to the families behind him, he described them as "the folks who work hard every day, pay their taxes, and do their level best to raise their families." They are Massachusetts residents and, he added, "citizens of this state, unlike the Supreme [Judicial] Court, know what is best for the children."

"Praise God," screamed a middle-aged, bearded man standing before me. Dressed in jeans, a yellow shirt, and a brown corduroy coat, he kept up his interjections throughout the 30-minute press conference. Afterward, the man, Tom Sullivan, an unemployed carpenter and an avowed Christian, told me he had driven two hours and 15 minutes from Northampton to Boston just to attend the coalition’s public debut. The night before, he said, "I had prayed and asked God what can I do about this decision." Not long afterward, he had noticed a letter about the Wednesday event while at a friend’s house. Naturally, he took it as a sign.

"I’m standing here on principle," he said, and then added, "This nation was founded upon a covenant with God. I cannot stand by and watch that foundation crumble."