Catholic Church a powerful force in [Minnesota's] marriage amendment debate

[Dale_M]

This concerns a proposal for a state constitutional amendment which would ban same-sex marriage. Minnesota law currently bans it, but there is concern that the state law will be struck down by the courts.

Catholic parishes are assigning church captains, typically a married couple, to educate parishioners and get out the vote. The church holds special offerings to collect money for the amendment effort.

“I make no apologies for the defense of marriage because it’s an important social institution,” said Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the political arm of the Catholic Church.

Adkins is quick to stress that the church’s official position is not against gay people but pro-traditional marriage.

Adkins leads the Minnesota Catholic Conference Marriage Defense Fund, a registered ballot lobbying group that reported $750,000 in contributions to the Campaign Finance Board at the end of January. That’s more than half of what the pro-amendment side raised. He said more contributions are coming.

minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/05/07/catholics-marriage-amendment/

Photos from Sunday’s rally outside the state capitol building.

minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/05/07/religion/photos-same-sex-marriage-amendment-rosary-walk/

Here is one photo
(click picture to make bigger)

 

[timotheos]

Adkins is quick to stress that the church’s official position is not against gay people but **pro-traditional **marriage.

I don’t like the use of any qualifiers like “pro-traditional”. It implies that there are other legitimate forms.

Sorta like beef burger. If it ain’t beef, it’s not a burger. You start using qualifiers, people start to think you can make burgers with tofu.