Tag Archives: Alliance Defense Fund

Fox News: ADF legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco said it’s up to the group, not the school, to characterize it’s beliefs. “Saying that a Christian club isn’t religious is flatly absurd,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “The First Amendment forbids the government from determining what is and what is not ‘religious,’ yet the university [was] doing exactly this by telling a Christian group that it is not religious.”

Jay Schalin at National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog: Recently, the school relented and gave Make Up Your Own Mind the right to exclude based on belief. The reversal occurred after the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit on behalf of Make Up Your Own Mind.

Christian student club told it must unite with other faiths to receive approval

Beaumont Enterprise: Jeremy D. Tedesco, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, is representing the boy and his family. Tedesco said the boy’s father, Michael Metcalf, is suing the district for a violation of his son’s constitutional rights.

OneNewsNow: Since then, ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco says the school has clarified its non-discrimination policy, which officials admitted to misinterpreting. “[They] essentially clarified that they have an exemption to their non-discrimination policy that allows all belief-based clubs, including religious clubs, to restrict their members and leaders to the beliefs of the group,” Tedesco details. “And that’s a good thing not only for the Make Up Your Own Mind group, but for all groups moving forward as well.”

LifeSiteNews: The Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act, an initiative of Republic State Representative Daryl Metcalfe and co-written by the Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund, will place facilities that provide abortions at the bottom of a priority list for funding, allowing more money to go to health care providers that offer services for women such as dental care, mammograms, and treatments for anxiety disorders.

Catholic.org: The bill has been presented by state representative, Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) and will put all abortion providers at the bottom of the state’s funding list. The bill is known as the Whole Women’s Health Funding Priority Act. The bill was co-authored by the Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund.

Inquisitr.com: Metcalfe will introduce the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act on Wednesday, a bill that would place abortion providing health care providers at the end of the priority list for state funding. The bill was co-written by anti-abortion activist group Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund.

Ms. Magazine: According to the Huffington Post, the bill was co-written by the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List and Alliance Defense Fund.

InsideNova.com: Foreman also said the council needed to hear the input of Doug Anderson, a Woodbridge attorney affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund. The goal of the fund is to educate the public and government about constitutional rights, particularly freedom of religious expression.

PR Newswire: WCF VI is organized by HazteOir.org (the local host committee) and The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society. Co-conveners for WCF VI in Madrid include Alliance Defense Fund, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and Focus on the Family. World Congress of Families is also supported annually by our 35 partners, in 11 countries. Click here for a complete list of WCF Partners.

LifeSiteNews: The Alliance Defense Fund is handling three lawsuits against the mandate on behalf of Louisiana College, Geneva College, and a private employer. ADF President and General Counsel Alan Sears said, “These new cases… join the growing list of evangelical, protestant, and Catholic religious organizations and employers who are taking a stand in objecting to the government when it forces any religious institution or individual to provide or fund morally repugnant services.”

The Raw Story: Metcalfe was due to appear at a press conference on Wednesday morning with anti-abortion activists who wrote the bill, including representatives from the Alliance Defense Fund and the Susan B. Anthony List. Both groups boast on their websites of how effective they have been in harming Planned Parenthood’s funding, with the Susan B. Anthony List claiming that it played an integral role in sapping more than $61 million from the women’s health provider in legislative battles across the nation. (also reported at Democratic Underground)

Care2.com: Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) will introduce the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act, a bill similar to one in Ohio that would put health care providers that offer abortion services at the bottom of the priority list for state funding. The bill is co-written with anti-abortion activist group the Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund.

One News Now: Attorney Erik Stanley of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the complaints are “the same tiresome claims from a group that is intent on bullying churches and intimidating them into silence.” “What this pastor did in Kentucky was nothing more than to exercise his constitutional right to speak freely from his pulpit,” Stanley asserts. “No pastor anywhere should ever have to fear the IRS, or Americans United or any other group for that matter when they stand and they speak biblical truth in the pulpit. That’s all this pastor was doing.”

NC Register: Johnson told the Register that the conference initiated the effort to pass an exemption and worked closely with the Alliance Defense Fund — a coalition of Christian attorneys — to compose the bill’s initial draft. The Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative nonprofit, also advised on the bill. “I’m really glad that religious freedom has been expanded in Arizona,” said Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who worked on drafting the bill. Bowman told the Register that the new state law “empowers” Arizona residents to challenge the looming federal mandate that all employers, including many religiously affiliated entities such as schools and universities, provide all federally approved forms of birth control by next summer. “When states like Arizona protect the religious freedom of their citizens, they empower those citizens to go into court to protect their fundamental rights. [The law] allows them to sue the federal government and to be able to win,” Bowman said.

Huffington Post: Metcalfe’s bill, the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act, would put health care providers that offer abortion services at the bottom of the priority list for state funding. The anti-abortion activist group Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund co-wrote the bill, which closely resembles the one Arizona lawmakers used to defund Planned Parenthood earlier this year.

Citizen Link: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit against the school on behalf of the group on Feb. 29 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. A settlement was reached, so the ADF filed paperwork Monday to withdraw the suit. “To their credit, they clarified policy,” said Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel with ADF. “The policy is now clear — all belief-based clubs are able to select members and leaders based on their beliefs.” [more]

University says Christian student club will no longer be forced
to admit non-Christians as leaders, voting members

Fred Mogul at NY Times (includes audio): Jordan Lorence, a lawyer who represents the churches, has argued that accommodating religious expression is very different from endorsing it. He said if the city was concerned about confusing students because their schools host worship services on Sundays — which the city has argued in court — then it should really worry about children who go to unmistakably Christian and Jewish buildings every school day. “Under their own criteria, those seem to be much more serious than what’s happening on the weekends,” said Mr. Lorence, a lawyer at the Alliance Defense Fund. “The school district is in the weird and strange and contradictory situation of: schools meeting in former church schools, O.K.; churches meeting in schools, not O.K. And I just don’t see a whole lot of difference there.”

Christian Post: “Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas. Removing the voice of faith from schools sends a message to all students that religion is something to be ashamed of,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Matt Sharp. “The school district is off to a good start in allowing this performance to occur, but it needs to revise its unconstitutional policy so that this doesn’t happen again.”

Brattleboro Reformer: “The government shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” stated the Alliance Defense Fund’s President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears. “We welcome these lawsuits, which are about religious freedom and freedom of conscience, not about contraception … These new cases are about the very right to determine what is ‘religious’ and what faith-based beliefs may be followed in life.”

One News Now: Baylor says the Obama administration pointed to religious freedom in its decision in a very narrow way by exempting houses of worship. “But then they went on not to exempt anyone else,” he explains. “They’re basically saying, Hey, if you’re a religious organization that’s out there in the world, serving the world, hiring people who don’t necessarily share your religious commitments, you’re not entitled to freedom of conscience. I think that’s one of the key issues at stake in all of these cases … the scope of the right of conscience.” [more]

Christian Post: Welcoming the lawsuits, Alliance Defense Fund CEO and General Counsel Alan Sears said the issue at hand is religious freedom. “These new cases are about the very right to determine what is ‘religious’ and what faith-based beliefs may be followed in life. They join the growing list of evangelical, protestant, and Catholic religious organizations and employers who are taking a stand in objecting to the government when it forces any religious institution or individual to provide or fund morally repugnant services.”

Alan E. Sears at Townhall: Here’s the bottom line: proponents of death can call the baby a “fetus” or “blob of tissue” or a “mass of cells” or whatever they must call it to keep their consciences from gnawing at them at night, but the reality is that the baby is actually what a baby always is—just a little human: A human that needs extra care and protection because of her size and tender age, but a human nonetheless.

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defense Fund President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears to express support for 12 new lawsuits being filed by 41 Catholic dioceses against the Obama administration’s mandate that requires religious organizations to provide health care coverage for abortifacients, sterilization, and contraception . . .

Gary McCaleb at Townhall: When President Obama prepared to repeal the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy in July 2011, defenders of marriage and religious freedom warned that the repeal would open Pandora’s Box. Military chaplains even sought congressional action to protect their rights of conscience. The predominant concern was that the President’s actions would usher in attempts to redefine marriage on military installations, which would, in turn, force chaplains to perform the ceremonies for same-sex couples in uniform . . . in the months since the repeal, it turns out the concerns were well-founded.

Idaho Reporter: Matt Sharp, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, was prepared to sue the school over not allowing the student to perform.

The New American: Oster pointed out that the U.S. Constitution “has never required any local government to engage in such gymnastics to have prayer, as is clearly seen by the prayers of America’s Founding Fathers. Prayer-givers have a right protected …

Colorado Statesman: The general counsel for Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund warned lawmakers against opening the door to lawsuits aimed at undermining traditional marriage. “Achieving civil unions is a calculated step to achieving court-ordered, same-sex marriage,” said Brian Raum. “Opposing same-sex marriage while supporting civil unions is akin to the Trojans dragging a wooden horse into the middle of Troy.

Greg Baylor at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Apple told Manhattan Declaration sponsors that the app’s content was considered “likely to expose a group to harm” and “to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others.” Did Apple violate the principles underlying the First Amendment when it took this extraordinary and unprecedented step? Should the government step in and require private companies to respect free speech values?

Travis Barham at Speak Up Movement University Blog: But the remarkable thing was who delivered the prayers. A Hindu student gave the Hindu prayer, a Jewish student gave the Jewish prayer, a Muslim student delivered the Muslim prayer, and Christian student likewise represented his faith . . . But this arrangement is also at odds with the new “all comers” policy that Vanderbilt imposes only on religious groups. To be consistent, Chancellor Zeppos should have mixed everything up.

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that presses faith-based cases in courts nationwide, represented the town in court. It said it will appeal the ruling.
Joel Oster, senior counsel for ADF who argued the town’s case, called the ruling “highly inconsistent” with what the Supreme Court has said on the issue and said it means towns will have to “complete an obstacle course” before they can qualify to say a prayer before a meeting. “The town has no obligation to go outside of its borders as if it’s an affirmative action program,” he said.

Findlaw: “The court wants the town to be prayer monitors, to determine how many prayers in Jesus’ name are too many,” which would violate the Establishment Clause, the Alliance Defense Fund’s Joel Oster told Thomson Reuters News & Insight.

One News Now: . . . ADF attorney Joel Oster tells OneNewsNow prayers have been offered according to the “conscience of the speaker.” “There is no legal reason why a town cannot engage in this practice today with people from within its own community,” he asserts. “The district court rightly affirmed the constitutionality of the town’s policy, and we will appeal the Second Circuit’s decision. Secularist groups cannot be allowed to force local governments to engage in strange hoops and hurdles that effectively eliminate prayers by making them too difficult to take place.”

One News Now: Alliance Defense Fund-affiliated attorney Jason Craddock represented Eric Weathers, who ran into problems with FedEx when co-workers asked him questions about the Bible. They apparently sought him out because he has a degree in Bible and youth ministry. “He answered one person’s questions regarding Christian issues, and he answered just based on scripture,” Craddock explains. “And apparently that person took offense and then kind of twisted it and said that he said things he didn’t say. And the result of that was, well, you can’t even answer questions anymore about your faith.”

Federal News Radio: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that presses faith-based cases in courts nationwide, represented the town in court. It said it will appeal the ruling. Joel Oster, senior counsel for ADF who argued the town’s case, called the ruling “highly inconsistent” with what the Supreme Court has said on the issue and said it means towns will have to “complete an obstacle course” before they can qualify to say a prayer before a meeting. “The town has no obligation to go outside of its borders as if it’s an affirmative action program,” he said.

An Idaho elementary school has agreed to allow a student to perform sign language to a song in a talent show after originally prohibiting the performance because the principal said the song was “too religious.” The school district has also agreed to review the policy on which the original denial was based, though that policy is currently still on the books.

2nd Circuit says town should go outside its borders to search for non-Christians

Reuters: Joel Oster of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents Greece, said the town was prepared to appeal the case as far as the Supreme Court. “The court wants the town to be prayer monitors, to determine how many prayers in Jesus’ name are too many,” he said. That outcome violates the Establishment Clause, he said. Oster pointed to a 2008 ruling by the 11th Circuit in Pelphrey v. Cobb County, Georgia, upholding a county commission’s opening prayer policy.| Galloway v. Town of Greece, No. 10-3635-cv

Christian Post (5/7):Brett Harvey, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, told The Christian Post that his organization vows to fight the legal efforts of FFRF. “In recent years the Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed several lawsuits challenging the National Day of Prayer and similar public proclamations,” said Harvey. “In 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed their lawsuit challenging both the federal law creating the National Day of Prayer and President Obama’s prayer proclamation.”

Huffington Post (Religion News Service) (5/11/2012): Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, sees the Martinez decision “lurking in the background” of other cases. He filed suit in February on behalf of the Christian anti-abortion group Make Up Your Own Mind at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. The school, which does not have an all-comers policy like Hastings, was not going to formally recognize the group because officials deemed it nonreligious. “We don’t want the government determining whether a group is or is not religious,” he said.

Baptist Press: “Everybody thought they were taking a neutral stance. They did not indicate they were going to actively attack its constitutionality,” Dale Schowengerdt, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press. ADF, a Christian legal group, has worked to defend the law . . . Technically, the Justice Department is involved only in lawsuits that challenge Section 3 of DOMA — the section that prevents the federal government from recognizing gay “marriage.” But the legal arguments the Justice Department is making easily could be applied to all of DOMA, including the section that protects states, Schowengerdt said. President Obama, meanwhile, is supporting a bill in Congress that would overturn all of DOMA.

KSLA.com (includes video): A woman who was arrested in April after protesting at a Shreveport abortion clinic is speaking out about facing felony charges . . . I think the public record is pretty clear that these guys are behaving and acting like the keystone cops,” said Joel Pearce, Krier’s attorney . . . Pearce wants to go to trial. And he says he’s ready to make the case that his client was targeted for her beliefs. “We are going all the way, we will not negotiate, we will not surrender, and even after that we are going to make sure that Centenary is held accountable for this,” said Pearce . . . “This is not a prosecution, this is a political persecution,” says Pearce.
[Pearce is an ADF allied attorney]

Alan Sears at National Review: Therefore, while President Obama’s announcement may charge up the portion of his base to which he hoped to appeal, it does nothing to change the facts of the matter at hand. And those facts say a clear majority of Americans believe marriage should remain what it is and what it always has been, “a union between one man and one woman.”

Christian Post: Dale Schowengerdt, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, told CP that backlashes occur “on every issue that the court has taken out of the public debate and constitutionalized unnecessarily.” “The prime example is abortion,” said Schowengerdt, who agreed that after the 1973 decision “the nation has been reeling ever since.”

Alan Sears at Townhall: However, when German scholars Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche reference a worthy life, they are differentiating between those whom they believe we are justified in killing (via abortion, euthanasia, etc.) and those whom we are not allowed to kill. And the book they’ve recently translated, “Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living,” makes precisely these points.

One News Now: ADF attorney Nate Kellum says people of faith should not be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their beliefs. “The Constitution and court precedent in these types of cases is clear,” says Kellum. “Officials cannot toss someone out of a public event just because they don’t like the views he’s expressing . . . Exercising your constitutionally protected free-speech rights is not a crime,” says ADF attorney Jonathan Scruggs. “Threatening to arrest Christians simply because they choose to exercise those rights in a public place is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

WGRZ.com (includes video): Watch Buffalo attorneys Michael Risman of Hodgson Russ and Steven Cohen of Hogan Willig debate the merits of this lawsuit in the video player above The Alliance Defense Fund is filing the suit on behalf of Gregory Owen. The ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys that defend the right of people to freely live out their faith.

“We hope this ruling will remind corporate America that it’s simply bad business to force employees to check their faith at the door,” Craddock said.

Piero Tozzi at C-FAM: My colleagues at the Friday Fax reported last week that the “Latex Left” lost at the just ended UN Commission on the Population and Development, that they came away “empty handed.” With respect, I disagree with this assessment. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and its allies scored a victory. What they got was a (non-binding) declaration setting funding priorities that calls for “comprehensive” sexual education for youth and adolescents, marginalized parental involvement, and increased funding for “reproductive health-care services, commodities and supplies.”

Jordan Lorence appeared on 3WIRadio, Eye Opener with Lon Schmidt. | MP3 audio 22:45 mins (recorded last week)

ABC (Jim Campbell appears in the video) (5/9/12): But Jim Campbell with the Alliance Defense Fund doesn’t see it that way. For the organization fighting to keep marriage between a man and a woman, President Obama’s comment was a big surprise. “It is really surprising because in the past President Obama has so firmly spoken about how fatherless homes harm children in society, yet today’s statement is a contradiction that would create even more fatherless and motherless homes,” Campbell said.

Byron Babione at Townhall: And because North Carolina is the 31st state to implement such a constitutional-grade protection, President Obama’s announcement simply proves how out of sync he is with the desires and convictions of the American people.

BuffaloNews.com (includes video): “People of faith shouldn’t be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their beliefs,” attorney Nate Kellum said in a written statement. “The Constitution and court precedent in these types of cases is clear: Officials cannot toss someone out of a public event simply because they don’t like the views he’s expressing. This is a classic example of free speech that the First Amendment protects.”

Baptist Press: The Alliance Defense Fund has launched a nationwide campaign to convince state universities and colleges to change policies that restrict students’ First Amendment rights . . . “The Supreme Court really needs to step in and clarify for universities that they can’t select particular views to censor,” said Kevin Theriot, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior counsel.

Reliigon Clause Blog: According to a press release from Alliance Defense Fund, a suit was filed in a New York federal district court last week on behalf of a Christian evangelist who wants to distribute Gospel tracts during the Buffalo (NY) annual Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival.

ADF attorneys file suit to challenge unconstitutional ban on free speech
at Italian festival

Washington Times: Steve Aden, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, pointed to several cases in which courts upheld the ability of states to choose to whom they will award funds. “These states stand on solid legal footing,” he said. “What the Obama administration is doing is a good job of blowing a lot of smoke and raising a lot of confusion about the legality of these bills.”

Alan E. Sears at National Review Online: Until the last few years, humanity was united on the purpose and the goodness of marriage. That is still largely the case, but unfortunately, well-funded cultural and political elites, including the ones attacking marriage today, are attempting to monopolize the cultural conversation. It’s a conversation in which we who recognize the truth about marriage and want to protect marriage — as the people of North Carolina just did — will continue to engage.

Steven Aden at Townhall: Case in point—the news that certain citizens in China, no doubt numbed to the evil of abortion by their country’s one-child policy, have literally begun to place the corpses of aborted children in refrigerators in homes. From there, the bodies are “taken to clinics where they are placed in medical drying microwaves.” In the microwaves, they are dried (cooked), and once their skin has become sufficiently dry it is ground into a powder which is used for quack “home remedies.”

Byron Babione at USA Today: The union between one man and one woman — marriage — is timeless, universal and special. It is the only relationship absolutely essential to the future of humanity. False characterizations of marriage as something else confuses the discussion about it.

Baptist Press: Jim Campbell, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund — which defends traditional marriage laws — said Obama’s announcement could negatively impact families. “The president has spoken eloquently about how fatherless homes often hurt children and society,” Campbell said. “Today’s statement is a tragic contradiction that promotes the creation of even more fatherless and motherless homes.”

One News Now: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has made progress in defending the rights of Christians in India. . . . “No one should be targeted for violence, inhuman treatment and religious discrimination simply because of their Christian faith,” [Benjamin] Bull contends. “The legal efforts of ADF in India are all designed to ensure that the religious freedoms protected in India’s constitution are upheld. Aggressors should not be allowed to get away with persecution by either disregarding the law or by attempting to pass laws that conflict with the constitution.” [more]

Washington Post: Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, sees the Martinez decision “lurking in the background” of other cases. He filed suit in February on behalf of the Christian anti-abortion group Make Up Your Own Mind at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. The school, which does not have an all-comers policy like Hastings, was not going to formally recognize the group because officials deemed it nonreligious. “We don’t want the government determining whether a group is or is not religious,” he said. The school has since officially recognized Make Up Your Own Mind; Tedesco said the ADF is working on a settlement.

Julie Pace One News Now (AP): Jim Campbell, litigation staff counsel with Alliance Defense Fund, sees obvious contradiction in the president’s announcement today. “This shows that the Obama administration doesn’t understand the public purpose of marriage. Marriage — the lifelong, faithful union of one man and one woman — is the building block of a thriving society. It’s not something that politicians should attempt to redefine for political purposes. “The president has spoken eloquently about how fatherless homes often hurt children and society. Today’s statement is a tragic contradiction that promotes the creation of even more fatherless and motherless homes.

Lisa Leff at Mercury News (AP): The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that is defending Proposition 8 in court, said Wednesday that the president’s position “shows that the Obama administration doesn’t understand the public purpose of marriage.” “Marriage—the lifelong, faithful union of one man and one woman—is the building block of a thriving society. It’s not something that politicians should attempt to redefine for political purposes,” staff counsel Jim Campbell said.

LA Times: An anti-gay marriage group, Alliance Defense Fund, released a statement saying Obama “doesn’t understand the public purpose of marriage.” “Marriage — the lifelong, faithful union of one man and one woman — is the building block of a thriving society,” said litigation staff counsel Jim Campbell. “It’s not something that politicians should attempt to redefine for political purposes. The president has spoken eloquently about how fatherless homes often hurt children and society. Today’s statement is a tragic contradiction that promotes the creation of even more fatherless and motherless homes.”

Penney Young Nance at Fox News: A recent national survey, commissioned by the Alliance Defense Fund and completed by Public Opinion Strategies, revealed that 62 percent of Americans believe “marriage should be defined only as a union between one man and one woman.” Again, every time the American people have had a chance to vote, they vote to uphold the traditional definition of marriage.

Washington Times: Religious conservatives also were critical, with Jim Campbell, litigation staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, saying the announcement “shows that the Obama administration doesn’t understand the public purpose of marriage. Marriage — the lifelong, faithful union of one man and one woman — is the building block of a thriving society.”

Christian Institute: Religious liberty group the Alliance Defense Fund said marriage is not “something that politicians should attempt to redefine for political purposes”.

AZFamily.com (includes video): Valley attorney Jim Campbell from the Alliance Defense Fund told 3TV he thinks this will shape up to be a big issue leading up to the election. “The American people are concerned about the issue of marriage,” Campbell said. “They want it to remain the union of a man and a woman.” The Alliance Defense Fund fights against gay marriage nationwide. We asked if Obama’s announcement in support of gay couples will make that fight more difficult. “This is one politician’s view about what he seemingly wants to redefine as marriage. But Americans across the country want to protect the union between man and woman.”

Tulsa World: Oklahoma is one of 30 states that has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, according to an Alliance Defense Fund website that advocates for a ban on same-sex marriages.

The president has spoken eloquently about how fatherless homes often hurt children and society. Today’s statement is a tragic contradiction that promotes the creation of even more fatherless and motherless homes.