Committee declines to support Federal Marriage Amendment By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Wednesday, June 30, 2004 2004 General Assembly Richmond, Virginia June 26-July 3, 2004 General Assembly news index RICHMOND, Va. – Commissioners on the National Issues Committee of the General Assembly voted against a commissioner's resolution to support the Federal Marriage Amendment. Instead, the committee voted to approve and forward to the General Assembly the following statement: "Nothing the 216th General Assembly has said or acted upon is to be construed to state or imply a position for or against the Federal Marriage Amendment. General Assembly entities shall not advocate for or against the Federal Marriage Amendment." The statement was a substitute motion, following a motion from another commissioner not to approve the commissioner's resolution. "This is a very volatile and divided issue – both the substance of the amendment and if it is even needed. I would like to see us not act on something that would further divide our denomination," said the committee member who made the substitute motion. "I don't want this motion to pass or not pass and I don't want it to be construed by the media or people in the pews of congregations that we are anti-marriage." The Rev. William C. Teng of the National Capital Presbytery presented the commissioner's resolution to the committee. Teng said the Federal Marriage Amendment "has to do with justice, fairness and the democratic process in America." Having been involved in writing the amendment for five years, Teng said the "purpose of the amendment is not to discriminate, but to affirm the institution of marriage. A small contingent of activist judges are redefining marriage for America … The intent of this amendment is to move this debate from the judges to the people." "The people of America should be able to define what marriage is," he said. "If the American people decide that same-sex couples should marry, then so be it. But let the people decide." Teng said it required a three-fourths vote in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives to add the Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "by no means an easy task. But we would succeed in letting the American people decide for ourselves what marriage should be."

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