Oregon defenders of traditional marriage stand ready to act

  
By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    PORTLAND — It’s been seven years since Oregon voters by a solid margin approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. But a recent spate of TV commercials and mailings by gay marriage proponents hoping to sway Oregonians’ attitudes shows the issue is nevertheless far from firmly resolved.
    But if, as expected, the marriage issue again comes before voters in the near future, the people behind the successful 2004 vote say they stand ready to take action again.
   “Marriage is so important,” Tim Nashif of the Christian-based Oregon Family Council told an estimated 400 pastors at an April 4 luncheon in Salem sponsored by the council. “Even though we don’t want to fight another battle, we’ll do it, and we’ll fight it as hard as we can.”
    Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s largest gay rights group, in March and April ran its second statewide TV ad campaign — an ependiture of hundreds of thousands of dollars — aimed at shifting attitudes toward same-sex marriage. The group ran a similar campaign last summer and has been working more than two years through community meetings, neighborhood canvassing, mailings and more. The group’s goal is to pass an initiative that would overturn the state ban on gay marriage, possibly as early as next year.
    Nashif and Mike White three decades ago founded the Portland-based    Oregon Family Council, which sponsored the third Pastors Day at the Capitol last month to encourage church leaders to have face-to-fact contact with their local state legislators. During the luncheon held just prior to pastors’ visits with lawmakers at the Capitol, Nashif and White said the marriage issue remains at the forefront of the council’s agenda.
    White presented to the pastors the results of a recent research project by the council’s education foundation on the current status of marriage. The 20-page booklet Marriage in Society Report acknowledges shifting trends regarding marriage and family.
   “One of the biggest things that has happened to marriage is that it hasn’t worked as well as it should the last 30 or 40 years,” said White, who attributed much of the reason for that to the nation’s moral driftings. But, he added, “there is a credible case that marriage, when it is done right, really works well ... and the alternatives don’t deliver what they promise.”
    White and Nashif said pastors and Christian leaders need to join with policy makers and community leaders to strengthen marriage.
    The report is one component in a larger effort by the council’s education arm called the Marriage Truth Project. Announced last fall, the project’s goal is that tens of thousands of Oregonians will gain a fresh perspective on marriage and have access to resources that will increase their chances for marital success. Working with leading experts on marriage, communication, research and Internet technology, project organizers are developing a web site with research, statistics and historical in-sights demonstating the benefits of marriage. Church resources also will be developed, along with high-quality videos.
     Recognizing the long-range need for a new generation to take up the cause, the council’s leadership recently named Jack Louman, 32, to serve as the group’s executive director. He comes to his new position from a background in both business and church work.
    Louman said that while the successful 2004 campaign was hurriedly organized — with initiative signatures gathered in just a matter of weeks in response to Multnomah County officials’ attempt to legalize same-sex marriage — that any forthcoming campaign to preserve traditional marriage is being well anticipated and will be carefully planned.
    Louman said it will be particularly important to have young adults strongly involved in a campaign. “The idea is to create an army of spokespeople from throughout the state who are young, between 18 and 30.”
    Although himself younger than White and Nashif, Louman shares their intensity over the issue and over the need to defend one-man, one-woman marriage.
     “If it has to be done, we’re going to fight like nobody’s business,” he said.