Palmetto Public Square

Frank Page has had quite a week…and it’s only Thursday.

Dr. Frank Page, immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, SC, was appointed in February to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Dr. Page flew to Washington this week for the first substantive meetings of the group concerned about where this Council was headed and whether he should stay on. Just looking at the first dozen or so religious leaders appointed earlier this year shows Page had good reason for concern. He may very well be the only pro-life choice…on a faith-based panel. (Fellow panel member Joel Hunter might hold to the biblical view if pressed, but that is another story.)

Dr. Page’s week turned out to be a roller coaster. The initial hope that Super Bowl Champion Coach and devout Christian Tony Dungy would be coming on board the Council for this week’s meeting was dashed. Not only was Dungy not appointed (amid speculation that his opposition to gay marriage may have played a role)—instead, Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign (a Washington-based gay rights organization) would be joining the group. Dungy had supported the campaign for traditional marriage in California, Knox had opposed.

But after a few days of the usual Obama Administration party line, a ray of sunshine: the public comment period on healthcare right of conscience had ended and the Administration would not reverse the Bush policy after all. Healthcare providers would still, under Executive Order from the President, be able to refuse to perform procedures or prescribe drugs the physician considered immoral.

On behalf of the people of South Carolina—Thank you, Dr. Page, for your leadership. You are in our prayers.

A quick review of the prefile list for 2009 reveals some great ideas…and some really poor ones.

Part I: The Bad

Every other year about this time, legislators “prefile” bills. That means they put a few ideas in the hopper in advance of the legislature’s actual meeting so they will have some work to do the first few weeks of the session.

A Senator from Charleston gets the prize this year for really bad proposals. His list of prefiles reads like a propaganda tract for those who want to radically change South Carolina’s family friendly culture.

South Carolina would be a very different place if the Senator from District 42 were to get his way:

• People of the same gender would be getting married (“civil unions”);
• Hotels, hospitals and employers would be giving special protection based on a person’s “actual or perceived” sexual identity;
  video poker would back on every corner;
• Riverboat casinos would operate along the coast; and
• Local governments would be prevented from restricting Sunday alcohol sales.

You can be assured that Palmetto Family Council and our legislative action arm, Palmetto Family Alliance will be watching these bills closely.

If any of this legislation shows any sign of life at all, we will contact you immediately with an email like the one at the top of this post called “Call to Action.” Please watch for it.

Together, we can keep South Carolina the best place in the world to live and raise a family!

P.S. To stand with us through your financial partnership as we continue the legislative battle for truth, you can make a donation HERE.

Note: To be fair, in the Senator’s world there would also be no baggy pants, no public profanity, sex offenders would be monitored via GPS, and car title lending would be regulated. Our analysis here is on the preponderance of his oeuvre.

The news just in from Maryland isn’t good. A Baltimore City Circuit Judge has ruled that Maryland’s one-man, one-woman marriage law violates the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Thankfully, South Carolina has no such law, but this wrongly decided order is another reason why our Marriage Amendment is a top priority for us as an organization and as a state.

Report from National Public Radio
ADF’s Jordan Lorence Interviewed

Copy of the Decision

Report from Maryland’s WJZ-TV

Breakpoint Commentary on Failure of Same Sex Unions

*The states that have ERA are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.