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Family Values & The Christian Right By Bill Berkowitz As the Corporation for Public Broadcasting might put it: The following is brought to you by the marriage pledge-originators at the Campaign for California Families and the "family values" signature corps at the Pro-Family Law Center. This column is about marriage. We're not talking "civil unions" or "domestic partnerships" - it's marriage with a Capitol M. It's also about "Traditional Family Values" - aka TFV. There are the two new "pro-family" initiatives circulating around the state these days. And as they say, as goes California, so goes the nation! The Campaign for California Families (CCF) is an organization with statewide aspirations. CCF is calling on all public officials and candidates for public office to sign its "Marriage Protection Pledge." The Pro-Family Law Center has more modest goals. It is gathering signatures for a "Family First Ordinance" - aimed solely at saving the good residents of Woodland, California. Pledging to defend marriage
The Marriage Protection Pledge asks political candidates to sign a pledge agreeing "to defend marriage…. [And] oppose all counterfeits to marriage with my votes, powers and privileges of public office." In its zeal to "protect the importance and uniqueness of marriage," each signatory pledges to "uphold the pro-marriage, pro-child, spirit of Proposition 22 [the Protection of Marriage Initiative approved by Californians in March 2000] and refuse to support 'domestic partnerships,' 'civil unions,' or any other kind of relationship that compares itself to the sacred bond of marriage between a man and a woman." You are probably asking yourself: Are there any politicians taking this stuff to heart? Of course there are. During the recently-completed primary, two of the three Republican gubernatorial candidates (William Simon, the winner and the GOP's gubernatorial candidate, and Secretary of State Bill Jones) signed on. The third candidate, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, and Democratic Governor Gray Davis did not signed the pledge. By March, a review of the CCF tally sheet at its website revealed that there were more than 150 candidates running for California State and federal offices who signed the Marriage Protection Pledge, while some 450-plus candidates had not signed up. CCF also pointed out that 27 current members of the State Assembly - including one lone Democrat, Dean Florez from District 30 - and 10 State Senators had also signed the pledge, while 53 current Assembly members and 30 State Senators didn't. Marriage isn't the only issue in CCF's quiver. The group has solid anti-abortion credentials as well.
"This shows the true face of the Democratic Party and the teachers' union," said Thomasson. "When asked whether to protect kids from being brainwashed to accept homosexuality and consider gay sex practices, they say 'no, we want homosexuality included in what every child should know.' It's more than amazing -- it's completely shocking and every parent and grandparent should be outraged." At the end of last year, CCF announced the birth of savecalifornia.com, an "exciting new web site [providing] one-stop information, encouragement and direction for California pro-family citizens in the New Year." Saving Woodland, California In the lowered expectations department, Scott Lively, head of the Pro-Family Law Center and author of the infamous book, The Pink Swastika, which "expose[s]" the "roots of homosexuality in the [German' Nazi Party," is spearheading a ballot initiative that would require the city of Woodland, Calif., to promote its family values agenda.
According to Conservative News Service, Lively's "'Family First Ordinance' would amend the city charter to make the promotion of abstinence, marital fidelity and devotion to children a priority of city government." According to Lively, the initiative comes in response to "adversaries with an agenda. The initiative would require billboards and other advertisements be placed around town to remind residents of e continually reminded of the city's "pro-family" Values. CNS: "the city would also be required to file a 'Family Impact Statement' for all laws and policies the city council adopts. The initiative also calls for the establishment of a seven-member 'Family First Citizens' Commission,' which would be charged with promoting a climate in which families can thrive." Lively told CNS: "The far left has advanced its destructive anti-family agenda, starting where it is strongest (big cities and university towns) and pushing outward into more conservative areas." Conservatives need to go on the offense and stop "playing defense" and losing ground, he added. "Instead we need to realize that we have an agenda of our own; a wholesome and positive pro-family agenda that will improve our society, not destroy it," he said. "The Family First Ordinance is a way for conservatives to prove that our agenda of family values produces a better way of life - first in strongly conservative areas like Woodland, and then...who knows." Scott Lively is a busy guy these days. In early April, he participated in the "Global Family Life Conference" held in Santa Clara, California. The conference was sponsored by the Front Royal, VA-based anti-abortion Population Research Institute (PRI), which is headed by longtime China critic Stephen Mosher. A few press releases posted at its website tell the PRI story: "What Reagan's Star Wars Did to Soviet Union, Bush's Missile Defense Can Do to Red China"; "Embryonic Stem Cell Experimentation: Bush's "Broken Promise"; "'About F.A.C.E.' Turns Attention to Coercive Abortion in America." |
Randy Thomasson: Leading California's right-wing movement 
Thomasson and other CCF members hold a press conference following their testimony on AB 1326, and measure that would prohibit the promotion of homosexuality in public education 
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