Passage of Federal Marriage Amendment crucial to protect family

Archbishop Chaput on passing the FMA:

First, this is not a debate over minority rights. In fact, casting it in that language is gravely misleading. The traditional legal protections around marriage are designed primarily for the bearing and raising of children. Minority groups have every right to live in the United States without intimidation. They do not have a right to redefine marriage in a way that undermines the family and attacks the environment in which children learn about the world and grow to maturity.

Second, the judicial activism that imposed abortion on demand on an unwilling country, and which has struck down every popular attempt to moderate it in the decades since, must not be allowed to do the same to Americans' understanding of marriage. Defining and protecting marriage is rightly a matter for the people to decide through legislative action, not through court edict.

Finally, no single state should be allowed to decide this vital issue for the entire country. If Americans are one nation, we need to express that unity in our basic national values and institutions, and nothing determines our shared future as a people more directly than our convic-tions about marriage and the family. This is why a Federal Marriage Amendment, confirming the identity of marriage for our whole country as part of our Constitution, is so important.