In what should not have been a surprise, reporters were shocked at Florida’s All – Everything quarterback Tim Tebor when he announced that he was a virgin and was saving himself for marriage. It caused me to reflect on the fact that this has gone from an expectation to being as rare as a Republican in Dubuque.

Earlier this month, the city of Dubuque announced an agreement with the owners of Dubuque’s soon to be former strip club, “The Office.” The agreement is for $30000, The Office will close on July 1, 2009 and will never open an adult entertainment facility there again. Questions have been raised by the Telegraph Herald Editorial Board and others about the heavy handed approach the City of Dubuque took in aggressively changing city ordinances to regulate the strip club and make it difficult to remain in business.

The city council needed to act aggressively to fix a zoning problem previous city councils had believed banned strip clubs from the city of Dubuque. The Office found a location and a loop hole in the zoning ordinances to allow them to build the strip club forcing the city council to act to protect the original intent of the existing zoning ordinances. The time to question the council was when they originally drafted the ordinances and not in their robust defense of the intent of this law.

The Dubuque City Council has done one thing that our state legislature failed to do; defend the law that a properly elected government body had put in place to prohibit certain acts. The Iowa Legislature failed to act to defend their own body’s law defining marriage between a man and a woman and should look to Dubuque for the courage to do so. Kind of ironic that Pat Murphy is from Dubuque…

In this response to the Iowa Supreme Court Ruling this morning, I won’t go into the reasons why this ruling was wrong and political. My response will simply remind all of you why it is important to work for the candidates who align with your belief systems and to help recruit candidates who are strong in their beliefs and stand for the conservative principles which believes there is good and evil, right and wrong. Pray for our state and work to change the leadership and advocate for a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman.

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — The campaign for Proposition 8 in California has launched a TV ad offensive against efforts by same-sex marriage advocates to defeat the measure Nov. 4. Proposition 8 would define marriage under the state constitution as the union of a man and a woman. It asks voters to overturn the California Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in May of this year that gave same-sex couples the right to marry. In the second of two TV ads running statewide, the ProtectMarriage.com-Yes on 8 campaign said that if the California Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of same-sex marriage is allowed to stand, religious organizations will face threats to their tax-exempt status and parents will be unable to stop public schools from teaching same-sex marriage in the classroom. The Equality California-No on 8 campaign launched on ad decrying the claims. Opponents of the ballot measure say that its passage would violate the civil rights of same-sex couples.

Washington DC, Oct 17, 2008 / 06:01 am (CNA).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has joined with the Knights of Columbus in developing a national plan of action to defend marriage against consequential legislative and judicial efforts to redefine marriage.

Among the first initiatives planned are the production of a brief internet video, the use of social networking site marketing, and the distribution of the bishops’ statement on marriage “Between Man and Woman.”

The 2003 statement affirms that marriage is a unique relationship between a man and a woman and therefore an essential element of healthy societies.

Cardinal Francis George, USCCB president, has appointed the ad hoc committee leading the effort. The committee is chaired by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who also serves as chair of the USCCB sub-committee on Marriage and Family Life. He is joined by Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, who chairs the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine; and Bishop Gabino Zavala, who is auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and chair of the USCCB task force on strengthening marriage.

The Knights of Columbus have agreed to fund the bishops’ efforts and Supreme Knight Carl Anderson serves as a consultant on the committee.

“We must increase our efforts to make known the unique beauty of the vocation to marriage,” explained Archbishop Kurtz at the announcement of the committee. “At the same time, we must address inadequacies in the ongoing public debate on the nature of marriage through education and public policy advocacy.”

The new plan continues broader efforts at promoting and protecting marriage. In 2004 the bishops began a National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage, which includes the “For Your Marriage” campaign.

The campaign web site at www.foryourmarriage.org offers information and help to engaged and married couples. The campaign began distributing “For Your Marriage” messages in July 2007, in such an amount that the campaign ranked in the top twenty percent of air time.

As of September 7, a press release states, Nielsen reported 27,726 total broadcasts of the four “For Your Marriage” messages released so far, using donated airtime valued at $4.3 million.