Sutherland Institute to present Sacred Ground Initiative

Sutherland Institute to Present Sacred Ground Initiative at Feb. 5 Event
SALT LAKE CITY – January 27, 2009 – Following an unsuccessful campaign to dismantle traditional marriage in California, gay rights advocates are now turning their focus to Utah. Known for strong family values, Utahns are now being exposed to deceptive marketing campaigns based on a non-threatening appeal to “common ground.”

To learn more about the battle that has come to Utah, and be introduced to the Sacred Ground Initiative, the public is invited to join Sutherland Institute on Thursday evening, February 5, 2009, for State of the Union II: The Challenge to Family and Freedom. The event will be held at the Show Barn at Thanksgiving Point from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.

“Sutherland continues to defend the sacred ground of traditional marriage, and family as the fundamental unit of society,” said Institute President, Paul T. Mero. ”This session will talk directly to Utahns about how the gay marriage controversy has come to our state and what responsible citizens can do to stand up for and be advocates to protect marriage and optimal family structures.”

Speakers will include Mero, LaVar Christensen, primary author of Utah’s Constitutional Amendment in support of traditional marriage, and Lauralyn B. Swim, Sutherland benefactor and former member of the Young Women General Board of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The program is free to the public. Those who are interested in attending must call (801) 355-1272, e-mail si@sutherlandinstitute.org, or visit www.sutherlandinstitute.org to reserve seats for the event.

To obtain more information on the event, as well as additional information you should know about the “common ground” initiative, please visit http://sutherlandinstitute.org/newsletter/newsletter.asp?n=106

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The Sutherland Promise: Sutherland Institute will strive to keep Utah free and prosperous by defining, defending and promoting responsible citizenship through authentic, conservative values.

7 comments on “Sutherland Institute to present Sacred Ground Initiative”

Suggested slogan: “You bet Mormons stole your rights in California, and if you had any in Utah we’d steal those too!”

/furiously typing

I was thinking more: “What’s with all this adult discussion and unity? Someone call Lavar!”

What the Sutherland Institute has demonstrated well is that married, loving, two parent families are good for kids and by extension, society. What they haven’t established is why the two parents can’t be the same sex. In the Sutherland Institute’s “Resolution on The Natural Family”, they make an enormous illogical jump from “two married traditional parents are good” to “two married non-traditional parents are bad”.

So, if someone (like the American Academy of Pediatrics) released a study saying children raised by gay parents are no worse off than children raised by heterosexual parents, would that change anyone’s mind at the Sutherland Institute?
(see http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/349)

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees that marriage is good for families. What they also find is that the only real detriment to kids being raised by homosexual parents is they get teased more.

If expanding marriage rights to gay couples is beneficial to kids, then why oppose it? There seems to be more than empirical data driving the anti gay marriage movement.