A day before the vote for the constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in Texas, pastors have already delivered their sermons and their churches have passed out the fliers urging the public to vote to protect marriage.
Proposition 2 would define marriage as being only between one man and one woman. The state currently bans same-sex marriages but the proposition would add this to the state's constitution in a measure that is upheld in eighteen other states.
Opponents find that the proposition is discriminatory because it would deny same-sex couples rights that are given to heterosexual couples since the amendment would outlaw civil unions, which is approved in Connecticut and Vermont.
Pastors are urging their congregations, saying that they should vote with conviction and follow what the Bible says.
Pastor Gordon Banks of the Covenant Church in Dallas said according to the Dallas Morning News, "The House has passed it. The Senate has passed it. The governor has passed it. And the people have to ratify it!"
By voting for the constitutional amendment, supporters said this would prevent judges from overturning marriage laws, which occurred in such states as California and Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Christians are realizing that they need the constitutional amendment in their states to protect the biblical defintion of marriage.
Organizations such as the Great Commission Center International (GCCI) led by Rev. Thomas Wang and the Traditional Family Coalition, formed by Chinese Americans last year, are in the process of gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment to be placed on California's 2006 ballot.
"God created human beings as a man and a woman. God did not create two Adams and two Eves," Rev. Wang said in an interview with the Gospel Post. "It is the natural law and creation by God."
Efforts have been made by President Bush to enact a federal marriage amendment which was unsuccessful in the nation's legislature. They needed three-fourths of the states' approval—38 total—to make the change.
Massachusetts remains the only state that legalizes same-sex marriages.
