Christian conservative Bob Vander Plaats has renewed his pledge to repeal Iowa's gay marriage law.

In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down Iowa's law preventing such unions, making it the 3rd state to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Vander Plaats has repeatedly called on lawmakers to reverse the decision with either a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual union or an executive order issued by the governor. The latter has been rejected by both Democratic and Republican governors.

In 2011, the Republican-led House approved such an amendment but Democrats in the Senate blocked it from consideration.

As public opinion shifted – 56 percent of Iowans oppose the marriage amendment, according to a Des Moines Register poll conducted last year – House Republicans have increasingly signaled an unwillingness to revisit the issue.

Additionally, voters in neighboring Minnesota last year rejected a similar amendment.

Still, in an interview with a Sioux Falls television station broadcast on Monday, Vander Plaats renewed his call for a marriage amendment.

“If you win control of the Iowa Senate, you can pass a marriage amendment in the House and a marriage amendment in the Senate, and you can get it to the people of Iowa to vote on this issue and to amend the constitution that way,” Vander Plaats said.

He added that his opposition stems not from hatred toward gay people but creating a clearly defined standard of what marriage is.

“If you take away the fences regarding marriage, you have undefined marriage,” he said. “All of the sudden it means anything to anybody.”

“If you do things God's way when it comes to marriage, things work out really good. When you go against His plan, it's awful,” he added. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

(Related: Gay marriage opponent Bob Vander Plaats likens being gay to secondhand smoke.)