Defending marriage from social experimentation

As long as Ive had the honor of serving my northeast Georgia neighbors in Congress, almost nine years now, Ive always let commonsense and Georgia values guide me on how best to represent the folks back home. As Ive said before, commonsense may be in abundance around kitchen tables in our neck of the woods, but Im sad to say its usually in very short supply in our nations capital.

But occasionally a commonsense idea is met with a broad range of support from across the political, ethnic and religious spectrums and brings together folks who havent always shared the same perspective on other issues.

Such has been the case, Im pleased to say during Marriage Protection Week, with the defense of marriage and the support of the Federal Marriage Amendment (H.J. Res. 56) - legislation Im cosponsoring which would amend our Constitution to finally protect marriage.

These folks support the Federal Marriage Amendment because they believe traditional marriage has provided the primary moral cornerstone and strong practical example for our children for centuries.

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A poll conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide last March provided further evidence that support for defending marriage and this bill is significant and originates from a very broad range of folks. Overall, the poll results indicated that 62 percent of those surveyed nationally agreed with the statement: Marriage is the union of a man and woman.

If so many of us agree on the sanctity and importance of marriage, why is legislation needed to defend it in the first place?

Its necessary because far too many activist federal and state judges are using the courts these days as a vehicle to promote a radical social agenda.

And while social statistics repeatedly tell us that the health and success of children who are raised with a mom and dad who live at home, are married, and are engaged in their lives, is measurably better than the health and success of those children who are missing this fundamental component of family life - these activist judges continue to jeopardize our cultures most basic building block and threaten the health and success of many of our nations children.

American family and traditional values are under assault. By passing the Federal Marriage Amendment, Congress has an opportunity to do the right thing, claim a significant and much needed victory for Americas families, and send a strong message to those who would put personal social experiments before our nations traditional values that we wont sit idly by.

(U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood is an Evans resident.)