Garlow details urgency of passing Prop. 8
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 7/29/2008 10:10:00 AM
In May the California Supreme Court legalized homosexual marriage, and one month later the state began issuing licenses to same-sex couples. But a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot would reverse that. A recent Field Poll shows proponents of homosexual marriage ahead 51 percent to 42 percent (7 percent undecided). But Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, says the questions in that survey were skewed to produce a liberal and supportive answer.
"The other polls that were taken, two at the same time, do show us winning [with] 54 percent. Now, we're not going to rest on the laurels of that at all," Garlow explains. "If they want to poll at 51 percent in their favor, that's great -- because the only poll that makes any difference, of course, is November 4th when people vote. So we're working aggressively as if we are behind on this issue."
Garlow has organized a teleconference with pastors and lay leaders to explain to them just how important it is for Prop. 8 to pass. "[If] we lose, we go to jail. How soon I don't know. But the fact is this is the kind of case where political correctness is bearing down," the pastor contends. "If a pastor refuses to perform a homosexual wedding, if we lose on this, he will be or she will be so incredibly vulnerable at that time."
He is organizing training for California pastors and lay leaders to get out the Christian vote in November -- and he has a message to pastors who are reluctant. "If you don't care about this campaign, don't want to get involved, you can go to jail and start a wonderful prison ministry," Garlow adds. "But if you want religious freedom, we're going to have to win this thing."
Late Friday afternoon, the California secretary of state changed the description and title of the amendment as it will appear on the ballot and in voter pamphlets. Attorney Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says the secretary of state has the discretion to do that -- and he is concerned it could spell defeat for the amendment come November.
