(AgapePress) - "Marriage Protection Week" wraps up on Saturday. A coalition of pro-family groups pushed for an official proclamation to focus on the threats to Bible-based marriage from homosexual activists who are trying to redefine the institution to include same-sex unions.

The week-long focus on traditional marriage was initiated by the "Arlington Group," a coalition of more than two dozen pro-family organizations organized by Dr. Don Wildmon, chairman and founder of the Mississippi-based American Family Association. Many of the leaders of those groups have stated that they feel this effort to preserve what they consider to be the foundation of society may be the most important battle their movement has fought in several decades.

The White House issued a proclamation on October 3 designating the week as "Marriage Protection Week" and defining marriage as a "sacred institution" and a "union between a man and a woman." And on Thursday, Republican Congressman John Hostettler of Indiana introduced in Congress the Marriage Protection Act of 2003. Under the proposed act, un-elected federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court would not be able to legislate from the bench and circumvent federal laws or policies regarding the definition or extension of benefits to married couples.

Obviously, not everyone thinks the preservation of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a good thing. Leading the pack is the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the presidential proclamation "a thinly veiled attempt to plug the Federal Marriage Amendment -- another measure being promoted by pro-family groups in America.

"'Marriage Protection Week' is nothing but a handout to the far right seeking to unravel the already limited legal protections that gay and lesbian Americans have," says ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Anders in a printed statement.

In what could be considered its own thinly veiled attempt to endorse the homosexual agenda, the ACLU is calling on President Bush and Congress to reject any constitutional change that would deny "any legal benefits of marriage to unmarried couples."

Nation's Survival at Stake
But Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries -- whose group is among those behind the week-long observance -- understands why the God-ordained institution of marriage must be preserved. He says Christians need to be on the offensive in the battle for the biblical view of marriage because it is pivotal to the nation's survival.

"If we lose the institution of marriage, it's going to have devastating consequences for generations to come," Kennedy says. "I hope everybody will let their congressmen know how they feel about that and tell them that they feel it's vitally important that they do what they can to protect the institution of marriage."

Believers, he says, must not sit in silence as a small but vocal group tries to legalize homosexual marriage.

Kennedy, the well-known pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, has been quoted as saying: "If America is going to survive and thrive, it will require a renaissance of the American family." The pastor says he will be preaching on God's view of marriage this Sunday.

'Coming Out' for Christ
Pastor Darryl Foster of Atlanta says the attempt by homosexual activists and their supporters to re-define marriage is not acceptable. Foster is a former practicing homosexual who was very active in the deadly lifestyle.

"Each new relationship made me lose more and more of my self-worth until finally there was nothing left of me or in me to give," the pastor explains. "It was then when fleeting thoughts of getting out and change came to me, only to be replaced by 'this is who you are.'"

But Foster says he did change -- and continues to change. "I was transformed after meeting the ultimate man: Jesus Christ," he says. "I chose to leave my homosexuality -- not to pursue heterosexuality, but to pursue Christ."

Pastor Foster says same-sex partners are "two broken pieces of an irreconcilable picture" that can never come close to what God intended in a marriage union.

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