FIAT of Pioneer Valley News Article BACK

Family Research Council plans Liberty Sunday Boston broadcast Issue Date: 9/14/2006, Posted On: 9/14/2006 Bay Windows Boston If you thought the national religious right had written off Massachusetts as a lost cause, think again. On Oct. 15 Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), will come to Boston’s Tremont Temple Baptist Church to film a broadcast blasting same-sex marriage that will be televised and simulcast across the country. In a letter to their prayer team (supporters who pray for FRC’s political initiatives over the web) FRC explained that the broadcast, titled “Liberty Sunday,” will describe same-sex marriage as a grave threat to religious liberty in the Bay State and beyond. “There will be preaching from America’s great pastoral leaders, testimony from civic leaders, policy experts, and everyday Americans whose religious liberties are already being trampled due to same-sex marriage and the homosexual agenda. Americans will see and learn why same-sex marriage and religious liberty cannot coexist. Religious liberty, the cornerstone of all our liberties, will die an untimely death if Bible-believing Americans fail to pray and act now to defeat the legitimization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and elsewhere,” wrote FRC to its prayer team. The broadcast seems poised to follow in the tradition of previous FRC national simulcasts, such as their three “Justice Sunday” simulcasts from 2005 and 2006 aimed at promoting President George W. Bush’s conservative judicial appointees. Those broadcasts featured heavyweights of the religious right, including Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. FRC did not return a call to Bay Windows to comment for this story, and it is unclear whether they plan to bring in any high profile speakers for the Boston-based “Liberty Sunday.” The letter to the prayer team outlines some of the likely examples of alleged threats to religious liberty poised by same-sex marriage. Chief among them are the efforts by same-sex marriage supporters and lawmakers to block a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage from going before the voters on the 2008 ballot.

The amendment is expected to come up for a vote in the legislature Nov. 9. The letter also references the case of David Parker, the Lexington parent suing local school officials for including gay-inclusive books as part of the curriculum, and Catholic Charities of Boston, which discontinued its adoption services because the state forbade it from discriminating against LGBT prospective parents. FRC has already been in Boston laying the groundwork for the simulcast. FRC President Tony Perkins held a pastor’s meeting at Tremont Temple Sept. 8 for local pastors to discuss the event with them. Tremont Temple Pastor Ray Pendleton said about 60 pastors attended the meeting, but despite the description of the event in FRC’s prayer letter, Pendleton said he believed the broadcast would focus not on same-sex marriage but on the importance of traditional heterosexual marriage. “I think the emphasis is going to be looking at the importance of affirming traditional marriage. And I think in light of the upcoming constitutional convention we’re just thinking about how important that is, because we’re interested in allowing the citizens of Massachusetts to speak,” said Pendleton. Joining Pendleton in heading the host committee welcoming Perkins and FRC for this month’s pastor’s meeting were Dr. Roberto Miranda, chairman of the ballot question committee sponsoring the amendment, VoteOnMarriage.org, and pastor of Boston’s Congregation Lion of Judah, and Bishop Gilbert Thompson, president of the Black Ministerial Alliance and pastor of Boston’s Jubilee Christian Church. Pendleton said he himself would be speaking during the simulcast. He said he did not yet know what he would be speaking about, but he said it would be related to the importance of traditional marriage. The event will be filmed at Tremont Temple, which hosted Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out ex-gay conference last October. In the letter to their prayer team, FRC said Liberty Sunday will be aired at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 on nationwide television and radio. Past Justice Sunday events were aired on Christian radio and television networks. The events were also made available for sale on DVDs on FRC’s Web site.