With the Supreme Court deliberating on the issue of same-sex “marriage” this week, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property (TFP), joined the National Organization for Marriage’s March for Marriage 2015 on April 25, which attracted a pro-family crowd of approximately 10,000 onto Capitol Hill in a peaceful display of support for true marriage.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), opened the rally and was followed by several speakers from many of the nation’s pro-family organizations. The speakers included Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of the archdiocese of Louisville, Auxiliary Bishop John Joseph McIntyre of Philadelphia and Archbishop William E. Lori of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, who opened the rally with a prayer. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Papal Nuncio to the United States, was also in attendance at the rally.
Mainstream America was well represented. People from Alabama, Michigan, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Connecticut, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania travelled great distances to attend the march. Despite the hardships of road travel, participants were energetic and enthusiastic. As with the March for Life, the throng was full of families who behaved with respect and dignity.
The large turn out voiced what so many Americans of all ages and backgrounds believe: the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman must be defended. A banner carried in the march from the American TFP’s America Needs Fatima campaign contained the names of 12,251 people who could not be present but asked that their names be displayed.
During the rally, TFP volunteers gathered signatures on a worldwide petition to Pope Francis for the future of the family. The petition has already exceeded 200,000 and is continually growing.
The crowd of 10,000 marched up Capitol Hill to the beat of the TFP’s Holy Choirs of Angels marching band, which added a patriotic air to the event. The atmosphere at the march was calm, prayerful and orderly. Nowhere could a pro-marriage participant be found giving voice to hate.
Nevertheless, bunched together in front of the Supreme Court was a group of approximately twenty pro-homosexuals and cross-dressers.
This crowd clearly did not represent the majority of public opinion in America. The flag they held, a distorted version of the American flag, may have had the fifty stars on it, but stars of pink and stripes of purple, green, orange and aquamarine do not represent the values that Americans esteem and hold dear as symbolized in the American flag.
Those who defend true marriage must uphold the virtues that make America great; the virtues of courage, sacrifice, purity, temperance, and honor that are expressed in the American flag.
Red, white and blue are the true colors of America, the rainbow flag must be rejected.