2015 | Week of March 2 – #1087

Earlier this year, Politifact, those self-appointed, so-called fact-checkers at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel challenged something I said on a radio interview.

In question was this statement: “Polls on legalizing same-sex marriage are not dramatically changing.” When the Politifact reporter contacted me to supply proof to support my statement, I sent him links to several such polls showing exactly what I had asserted. Those facts didn’t matter; he announced publicly that what I had said was false.

Several weeks after this public pronouncement, yet another recent poll came to my attention. Unwilling to wave a white flag of surrender or to let him go unchallenged, I sent the reporter the link to that survey and asked him to reassess his position. Of course I didn’t get a response, let alone a retraction. I knew all along he wasn’t interested in the truth.

And now, I have yet more proof.  Last week, our friends at Family Research Council and a coalition of pro-family organizations, including Wisconsin Family Action, released the findings of a survey conducted early last month.[1]

The survey was done of 800 registered voters across the country, pretty much equally distributed geographically.  The findings included a clear majority support, 53% to be exact, for keeping marriage defined as the union of one man and one woman.  Now, of course you haven’t heard about that. Only 4 demographics dipped below 50%–women ages 18-54, Hispanics and people who attend church only once or a couple of times a year or who never attend church.  Not surprisingly, the highest support comes from those who attend church once a week or more, with 73% of those registered voters saying they agree that marriage should be defined only as a union between one man and one woman.

That’s not the only good news in this survey. When asked whether “[g]overnment should leave people free to follow their beliefs about marriage as they live their daily lives at work and in the way they run their businesses,” 81% of those surveyed agreed that indeed people should be free to live out their beliefs at work and in the way they run their businesses.  The lowest breakout on this item was from African-Americans and from those who attend church once a week or more, with 77% of both of those groups agreeing.

Ironically, this survey with this astonishing information was released the same week that the exclusive interview with Baronelle Stutzman aired on Fox News. Mrs. Stutzman, a florist in Washington State, has been charged with violating that state’s anti-discrimination law because she declined to do the flowers for the so-called “marriage” ceremony of two homosexual men. She’s been found guilty and could be fined $2,000, in addition to paying legal fees. This brave woman has said she will appeal and will not capitulate to the heavy boot of a government determined to deny her the right that 81% of Americans agree she should have.

The third encouraging finding from this survey tells us that 61% of Americans believe that states and citizens should be able to define marriage, not the U.S. Supreme Court.  On this question, the only demographic that was below 50% was those who never attend church. These statistics fly in the face of what the federal courts have been doing on this issue.

I’m sure Politifact could find some way to distort the truth this survey reveals. They obviously aren’t in the truth-telling business. But we are in the truth-telling business. And this poll tells me that while there is much hard work to be done, especially among 18-35 year olds on this issue, the truth is the majority of Americans still have a fundamental understanding and belief in traditional marriage, constitutional freedoms and state’s rights. And that’s encouraging.

We have a small window of opportunity to aggressively and actively educate people about God’s plan for marriage and why it is uniquely good for our society, about how religious freedom and individual conscience rights are in the crosshairs of this debate, and about how states’ rights are being trounced on by federal courts. As truth-tellers, Wisconsin Family Council, no matter what the mainstream media or Politifact says or does, will not wave a white flag of surrender. Rather, we will continue telling the truth everywhere, all the time about these critical issues.

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you the prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[1] http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF15B71.pdf