Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), and New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop
Gene Robinson were included in a panel debating Minnesota's proposed
marriage amendment.
The two men shared the stage with the
Rev. Jerry McAfee of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in North
Minneapolis and Sarah Walker, a board member of Minnesotans United
for all Families, the main group working to defeat the amendment
which would define marriage as a heterosexual union. The panel was
moderated by the Daily Circuit's Kerri Miller.
“The amendment here in Minnesota has
to do with a simple question: Do you believe that the courts or
politicians should define the nature of marriage, or do you believe
that the people should?” Brown asked the audience.
Robinson, the country's first openly
gay bishop, countered that marriage is not being redefined, but
simply that gay couples want to join it.
“I'll tell you what's changing
people's minds. They see two men or two women who love and care for
each other in the ways that husbands and wives have cared for each
other for countless generations. And they see them creating a family
and loving their kids,” Robinson said. “As a religious person
what I would say they see, is the light of God shinning in those
relationships.”
(Source: Minnesota
Public Radio.)
(Related: Fight
over Minnesota gay marriage ban tight, poll says.)