January 2005

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James Dobson and his political lobbying group, Focus on the Family Action, were instrumental in keeping the homosexual marriage issue before voters. Below Dobson discusses what the November 2 vote meant, and what's ahead.

What role did the marriage amendments (and the homosexual marriage issue) play in getting voters—particularly Christians—to the polls?
There's no question that the effort to protect marriage certainly helped to energize and engage many Christians in the election process. I have been critical in the past of the church's reluctance to "dirty itself" in these so-called political battles, which are in reality profoundly moral in nature, but I believe this signals the dawn of a new day.

Evangelical congregations in particular appeared to turn a corner with this election. Thousands upon thousands of pastors across the nation helped to educate their members on the critical issues at stake and the vital importance of exercising their citizenship responsibilities, and I heartily applaud their efforts.

Same-sex issues have been emerging on the political scene for the past 30 years. Why did the issue galvanize voters—particularly Christians—during this election? There were a number of significant developments in the two or three years leading up to the election that awakened the public to the seriousness of this issue. Chief among them was the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2003 requiring the state legislature to recognize homosexual "marriages." That maneuver was itself made possible by the infamous Lawrence v. Texas decision a few months earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, which claimed that the Constitution guaranteed a right to sodomy. There was also the creation ...