National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown sent his supporters a Good Friday and Easter message drawing parallels between his unsuccessful efforts to deny same-sex couples the right to get married and the experience of Jesus during Holy Week.
Brown recounts the biblical narrative of the crowds that first welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem but then turned against Him, and he empathizes:
In the run up to Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we experience Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with adoring fans lining the streets, waving palms, welcoming this great Son of God who has worked miracles, cured the sick and infirm, breathed new life into the dead, forgiven sins and fulfilled scripture. If they had public opinion polls back then, Christ's popularity would have been off the charts positive.
But within days, these same people who greeted his triumphant entrance turned on him, becoming a murderous mob that ended up preferring the criminal Barabbas to Jesus. He celebrated his last supper on earth with his disciples, knowing that he would be betrayed, and prepared himself for his barbaric crucifixion and death today, Good Friday.
How quickly they turned on him.
I can imagine how Jesus must have felt, having experienced on a far lesser scale a seeming seismic shift in public opinion (at least according to the media) in the object of much of my work, the preservation of marriage.
Christians believe that Jesus was executed on a Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday, which Brown calls the “most consequential day in the history of the world.” And Brown sees more parallels, suggesting that no-gay-couples-allowed marriage will rise again:
I can't help but feel the parallels between what happened during Christ's time on earth and some of our own experiences in recent times, including in the struggle to preserve, protect and promote marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
We've seen marriage be considered invincible one day, and then in a blink of an eye seen it redefined and defiled. We've seen the principle of traditional marriage be betrayed by people who swore to voters they would protect it. We've seen some people abandon the fight, whether out of fear or seeing many who remained vigilant punished and persecuted. And we've seen constitutionally-guaranteed rights such as the right to religious liberty be superseded by invented concepts that not only are not rights, they also are not right.
It can be disheartening at times, but we at NOM have not lost faith. You see, we've read the book and we know who wins in the end. We also know that the truth of marriage is universal and timeless, written on the human heart by our Creator at the beginning of time. Marriage cannot be changed, and the truth of marriage cannot be redefined or eradicated.
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. That's what the thing is, always has been and always will be. It is a profound good, and the most important human relationship ever created. It's the basis of families, and the foundation for raising children.
I know that true marriage will rise again. I think it will happen fairly soon, because it's impossible to maintain the lie of same-sex 'marriage' forever. But whether it takes two years or two decades, NOM is determined to fight every day for the truth of marriage and for the good that it provides for families and children.
