Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al

Filing 444

Declaration of Kaiponanea T Matsumura in Support of #443 Memorandum in Opposition, to Motions to Quash filed byPaul T. Katami, Kristin M. Perry, Sandra B. Stier, Jeffrey J. Zarrillo. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit A, #2 Exhibit B, #3 Exhibit C, #4 Exhibit D, #5 Exhibit E, #6 Exhibit F, #7 Exhibit G, #8 Exhibit H, #9 Exhibit I, #10 Exhibit J, #11 Exhibit K)(Related document(s) #443 ) (Boutrous, Theodore) (Filed on 1/12/2010)

Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al

Doc. 444 Att. 1

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Exhibit B

Dockets.Justia.com

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Monday, July 14, 2008

About

Pastors Defending Marriage
I don't usually opt to blog on someone else's behalf, much less post someone else's email/PSA as a blog ... but I'm making a well-deserved exception in this case. Read the letter below sent out a few days ago from a group of concerned pastors and you'll see why. Then, if you live in Florida, Arizona or California, go make a difference! ---------------------------------------------------------July 10, 2008 To: Our Pastor and Christian Leader Friends in Florida and Arizona From: Your Pastor and Christian Leader Friends in California RE: Your Invitation to join 2,000 California pastors in a July 30 Conference Call to defend marriage on November 4 (Election Day) Greetings, We are a collection of California pastors writing to pastors. We apologize in advance for the length of this letter, but we feel the seriousness of the situation merits it. Our three states have something in common. On November 4, California, Arizona and Florida will be voting on the definition of marriage. In California, we are reeling from a May 15 ruling of the CA Supreme Court which overturned our Family Code (Proposition 22, approved in 2000 by 61.4% of the voters) which declared that marriage consisted of the union of a man and a woman. As a result, gay "marriage" became legal here on June 16 at 5:01 PM. Unlike Massachusetts, where gay "marriage" cannot be "exported" to other states, anyone can get married in California, due to the lack of a residency requirement, and then return to their home state, requiring their gay "marriage" to be recognized. Here in California (as in Florida), we recently reached the needed number of signatures for a November 4 referendum when we will vote on the definition of marriage again, this time as a state constitutional amendment, so the CA Supreme Court cannot overturn the will of the people. Candidly, we, as California Bible-believing pastors and churches, are vulnerable at this time. There is no state protection that permits us to decline performing gay "marriages" (contrary to what appears as one small paragraph on page 117 of the CA Supreme Court ruling). Somewhere and sometime in our state, a gay couple will walk into an evangelical church, or a conservative Catholic Church, and demand (under California State law) to be married. We are responding to this by working to pass CA Proposition 8 which will add an amendment to the state constitution stating that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. To accomplish this, many pastors and Christian leaders have united.

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Over 1,600 of us (an unofficial "California Pastors Rapid Response Team") joined together to protect marriage in a June 25 Statewide Pastors Conference Call. We gathered at 101 locations throughout the state. Now we are preparing for our next conference call. A THREE STATE CONFERENCE CALL ­ INVITING ARIZONA AND FLORIDA TO JOIN US Two thousand pastors and Christian leaders across California are coming together at 200+ locations (host churches) for a statewide Pastors Strategic Protect Marriage Conference Call (1 hour and 45 minutes) on Wednesday, July 30, at 10 AM in California and Florida, and 1 PM in Florida. And here is our reason for writing. May we invite all pastors and Christian leaders from Florida and Arizona to join us for this gathering? Would it be beneficial for us to have "three state solidarity" on this issue from now until November 4, Election Day? If so, would you please forward this email invitation to every Florida and Arizona pastor and Christian leader you know. NEEDED Here in California, it is our goal to have, before November 4, 500 locations with 5,000 pastors and Christian leaders coming together in future conference calls in order to activate (along with others) 8 million men and women to vote for marriage, as God ordained it. With 7 million votes, we win it. With 8 million votes, we beam an indisputable message! Now we invite you in Arizona and Florida to join with us in this great three state conference call. HOSTING A SITE If you, as a pastor, are willing to host a gathering of Florida or Arizona pastors and Christian leaders at your church, or you know of a pastor who will host, please contact Chris Clark at [e-mail] if from Arizona or [e-mail] if from Florida, or call 619-415-5453 ASAP if you are willing to host. SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION We plan to offer the conference call in simultaneous Spanish translation. BRING STAFF AND LEADERS You may want to host a site in your church so that it makes it easier to bring your pastoral staff and key leaders. If you do not host a site, be assured that assistant pastors and key select lay leaders of ministries are welcome ­ at any site. WHAT IS NEEDED TO HOST A SITE In our June 25 statewide pastors call, we offered only audio capability (with some 200 power point slides for the 90 minute event). For our July 30 three-state call, we hope to present two technological options for site hosts: (1) Webinar (a seminar broadcast via the internet) or (2) Conference call (such as we did for our June 25 gathering). We are currently testing our capability to broadcast this and future conference calls to sites that have a broadband (Cable, DSL, or T1) internet connection for the webinar. Future emails will communicate the details for the site hosts. If we are able to go live with the webinar format in July, sites must be able to project the internet-based presentation (audio and video) from a computer. If you do not have broadband, and prefer to utilize the conference call format, you only need to have speaker-phone capability that can be adequately amplified, along with the ability to magnify or project a PowerPoint presentation. For those who have broadband: Webinar

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participants will not need anyone on-site to run the PowerPoint presentation ­ the presentation and the audio will be streamed to your site via GoToWebinar.com. For those who do not have broadband: The traditional conference call will be an audio transmission, with a PowerPoint presentation available for conference call sites to show while the audio plays, making the event more "informationally friendly." (A person at that site must listen to a separate conference call giving PowerPoint instruction and cues.) Be assured that the information shared will be extremely beneficial for the future of the cause of Christ. Saying it another way, it is worth canceling all other appointments in order to be present at one of these locations. FORWARD AND ALERT US TO NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES Additionally, please forward this email to as many Florida and Arizona pastors and Christian leaders as you can - or email us from Florida at [e-mail] and from Arizona at [e-mail] with the names of pastors and Christian leaders so that we can keep them informed of future developments. COURAGEOUS PASTORS If you are activated on this issue, may we take a small detour and affirm you? Thank you for being bold brothers and sisters in this struggle! Thank you for standing for the truth of Scripture, when it is not popular to do so. The present culture may be unkind to you. History, however, will be most kind to you. Being a biblically-based pastor today costs. The Gospel always has. It takes courage to pastor biblically today. We stand together with you! OUR LEGAL REALITIES HERE IN CALIFORNIA On page 117 of the 121 page May 15 California Supreme Court ruling, it supposedly exempts pastors from being forced to perform gay "weddings," stating the following: "Finally, affording same-sex couples the opportunity to obtain the designation of marriage will not impinge upon the religious freedom of any religious organization, official, or any other person; no religion will be required to change its religious policies or practices with regard to same-sex couples, and no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs. (CA Const., art. I, § 4.);" It may appear that pastors have "dodged this bullet." Candidly, we have not. The paragraph above, which sounds so consoling to Bible-believing pastors, needs to be fully understood. In legal terms, since the court case was not whether or not pastors should have to perform homosexual weddings, this paragraph is not legally relevant. If the case had been about the issue of whether or not pastors had to perform same sex marriages against their will, then that paragraph would have carried legal "weight." But the court case was only about whether same sex marriages were allowable in California. Thus that seemingly comforting paragraph is of little to no value. Succinctly stated, we are - according to the best legal minds we have talked to vulnerable. Attorneys defending us would make their case on a federal basis, but not, as we understand, on current state law. What will we face in California, Florida and Arizona if we fail to defend marriage? For an answer, let us look at what has happened to our Christian brothers in Canada and Sweden and their losses of religious freedoms. Some have been charged for speaking out on the practice of homosexuality. Others have been tried. Some have been jailed. The Bible is now viewed as hate speech. Pastors are viewed as hatemongers. Coming closer home, what has happened to the Methodist camp meeting in Ocean Grove, New Jersey when two lesbians demanded to have their civil union ceremony on

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church property? The lesbians could have chosen any part of New Jersey's long shoreline, but they wanted to be married on one location owned by a church related group. The State of New Jersey, siding with the couple, took the tax exemption away from a portion of their property. Now the church campground is involved in a draining lawsuit. What is ahead for us ­ if we fail to preserve the definition of marriage? Succinctly stated, (and unlike other issues), this is a survival issue, the survival of religious freedoms, the capacity to freely preach the gospel. It is important to note that it is totally legal for churches and pastors to speak out clearly on this issue. Ordination did not deprive you of your religious liberties. Churches can (and should) speak out on moral issues. Equally important is the fact that marriage is not ultimately a civil issue. It is biblical. It is a moral issue. Marriage, as you know, predated civil governance. FLUIDITY How are we to understand the changing legal climate? Christian attorneys will update us in the Wednesday, July 30 conference call. Several attorneys will be on hand to bring information on unfolding legal realities, including the recent legal attempts by the radical secularists to disqualify the upcoming ballot on marriage here in California. UNFOLDING STRATEGY In addition, we will cover the strategy for preparing for (and winning) the California, Arizona and Florida Constitutional Marriage Amendment votes in November. This is a winnable war. And, unfortunately, the freedom to proclaim the Gospel hinges on the outcome of this election. CALIFORNIA YOUTH / YOUNG ADULT STRATEGY In California, there is exciting news coming regarding the activation and training of armies of youth and young adults across the state. We hope that sharing about these "game plans" will energize you with the emerging strategy in your respective state. We know that you, in Florida and Arizona will, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, develop their own plans. We are not expecting you to replicate what we are doing here. We do want to encourage each other, however. CALIFORNIA MEDIA STRATEGY We would like to share with you what we are learning here regarding a media strategy. Frank Schubert (Schubert-Flint Public Affairs Company,Sacramento) and Ron Prentice (ProtectMarriage.com) will share the broader, California statewide media strategies, hoping these insights will be helpful to our Florida and Arizona brothers and sisters. FASTING AND PRAYER Here in California, we are focused on a 100-Day Prayer Period will launch July 28, ending at the election, November 4. Within that 100 day period, there will be a 40-Day Statewide Fast, from September 24 to November 2. Individuals may fast portions or all of the 40 days, as they are led, or they may fast in "relays" as teams. If you feel it is pleasing to the Holy Spirit, we invite our pastor friends in Florida and Arizona to join us in this prayer and fasting period. (Simply as a point of information, may we share regarding one more event here: A culmination of this 40-day period will be The Call (see www.thecall.com). The Call California will be held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, on Saturday, November 1, from 10 AM to 10 PM ­ involving 50,000+ men and women of God from every denomination ­ all united to create a climate of ongoing prayer and fasting in our state and across the nation. We want to emphasize one more time that we are NOT sharing our events here in

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California because they are to be "laid on" Florida and Arizona. We merely share them to be an encouragement to each other. We will, in this prayer and share process, learn from you as well. KEY ISSUE: REVIVAL In our hearts, we know that what is really needed is more than a voting victory in November. What is needed is revival and an avalanche of Holy Spirit-given evangelism. That is why we pray. WEBSITES If you have interest in listening to any or all of our 90-minute June 25 Statewide Pastors Conference Call, and to view the corresponding 200 PowerPoint slides, go to www.skylinechurch.org/marriage08.php and type in "marriage08" as a password. In addition, there are many practical materials that are applicable to all three of our states available at www.ProtectMarriageSD.com. Considerably more resources are located at www.ProtectMarriage.com URGENT RESPONSE NEEDED NOW Most importantly, join with us Wednesday, July 30, at 10 AM in California and Arizona, and 1 PM in Florida. Please consider hosting a site at your church. Contact Chris Clark at [e-mail] if from Arizona or [e-mail] if from Florida, or call 619-415-5453 ASAP if you are willing to host. Online registration for the meeting will be available on www.protectmarriagesd.com Please register on-line to insure sufficient materials are available for those attending at each location. Brothers and sisters, this IS winnable! We pray blessings on you ­ Florida and Arizona ­ this day. Your pastor friends... in this ultimately victorious battle, Jim Garlow, Skyline Church, San Diego Chris Clark, East Clairemont Baptist Church, San Diego Miles McPherson, The Rock Church, San Diego Jack Hibbs, Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills (LA area) Jim Franklin, Cornerstone Church, Fresno Dudley Rutherford, Shepherd of the Hills, Porter Ranch (LA area) Timothy Winters, Bayview Baptist Church, San Diego Along with 1600 other CA pastors and Christian leaders who love Florida and Arizona
# posted by Marcus Yoars : 1:23 PM

Comments:
As much as I applaud your efforts, I don't hold much hope. The Leader of that which we call the church, The Lord Jesus Christ clearly said that His kingdom was not of this world. The church was born in power as a separate entity from the world system. The corruption and deterioration started in the third century when christianity was made the state religion and became an institution.As long as we have ties with the world system they can control us. If we have buildings and credentials and ceremonies that are sanctioned by the state, we have ungodly beleifs that are going to be imposed upon us. The verse about being unequally yoked together with unbelievers has a much wider context than a saint marrying a sinner!
# posted by Anonymous : 2:58 PM

Our responsibilities as Christian disciples are to include: - occupy until the Jesus' return - be salt and light - not to be conformed to this world - preach the Gospel to the world Ive heard over and over those who would have the Church to not get involved in the culture and politics of the day. Where would America be today if our Christian Founding Fathers, many of whom were pastors and seminary profs, if they did nothing. Sitting on the sidelines is exactly

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what the Enemy would have us do if he cannot convert us to his will. We must be willing to lose it all to follow the Lord, else we are not fit to be His disciples. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. So how much do we love those in this world on the behalf of the Son? ON WARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS... - View from the Pew, CCCH
# posted by Anonymous : 10:03 AM

Marriage is a civil right and has nothing to do with religion. Seems that people opposed to Gay marriage are really expressing their hatred for loving homosexuals. Christians want to avoid sin that offends God. We do not unilaterally harm God but we do wreck our love relationship with Him by sinning. Created in His loving image, we fail to live up to expectations. Without Jesus and His deal to make it all right, we would be planning our new residence in Hell. But we have taken Jesus as Savior and Lord and He keeps us in His Father's loving will. As Lord, Jesus bases and defines ALL sin as lack of love (Matthew 22:36-40). Such obvious sins as theft, murder and adultery are unloving because each has a victim, someone not receiving love. Please tell me, who is the unloved victim in a homosexual relationship? Neither is a victim, neither is unloved. Where is the hurt? Who could bring suit against the "sinner"? What Gospel writer or Bible prophet claimed homosexuality is sinful? (Jesus didn't.) These are not rhetorical questions; they are unanswered by those who refuse God's grace and live by working the law. It is noteworthy that Gay people employ themselves in loving professions like medicine, education and the ministry. Those who call themselves Christians work in the Biblical judicial system. Certainly if God didn't want men to have sex with other men, He would have said "Man shall not lie with man PERIOD (Leviticus 18:22, 21:13). God wanted Moses to eradicate rampant idolatry in the Jewish nation. That whole " . . . as with a woman" thing condemns straight men pretending to make it with a woman, such as during idol worship. Paul explains it further when putting down the straight Romans (1:26-28 ) and Corinthians (1 Co 6:9-11) for "leaving their natural relations" (i.e.... as with a woman) and having idolatrous sex with men. Gay men are attracted to other men by definition and by God. They can only imagine what sex " . . . as with a woman" would be like. "Homosexual" was coined about 1865, so any Bible translation since then that uses a form of that word is a lie that needs to be emended. It premiered in a1946 English Bible and continues to condemn loving Gays. What is the most love one can show another sinner? Offer them an eternity with God through the redemptive cross of Jesus. Instead of judging them, shouldn't Christians be telling those "sinful" homosexuals that Jesus died for their sins? The stumbling block is that Gays do not want to affiliate with unloving and judgmental Christians. Know Jesus, know love. No Jesus, no love.
# posted by Mexjewel : 9:14 AM

I am confused by the message of that letter. It states that the churches will be vulnerable or else be "threatened" by losing tax-exempt status. Who cares if you lose tax-exempt status...dont perform the marriage if you dont want to....seems pretty simple to me. No one can "force" you to perform a homosexual marriage...if you go to jail for refusing how glorious for you to have stood up for God. Such weak Christians...have some kahunas! Stand up for what you believe in and stop whining about the "courts"! Jesus said you will be persecuted for believing in Him...so dont act so shocked when it happens.
# posted by Anonymous : 5:17 PM

Let's talk about the California Media Strategy ... First off, you've hired Schubert Flint Public Affairs. That'd be Frank Schubert (mentioned here) and Jeff Flint. Google "Schubert Flint" or google "Jeff Flint" and see what you find out. After that, go to Google News and search for "Jennifer Kerns" ... Frank and Jeff have hired a 35year-old SINGLE woman to act as lead spokeswoman for the "Yes on 8" campaign. Jennifer is being quoted everywhere in the media as an advocate of marriage and she's not even chosen to get married herself? So, here's my beef with how Frank Schubert has decided to handle Prop 8: Jennifer's being quoted everywhere in a campaign that involves denying the benefits of marriage to real parents raising real kids. I'm straight, married, and like to think my wife and I are raising a couple of great kids. If you're going to convince me to deny the benefits of marriage to gay parents, I need to hear from someone who brings some actual personal experience with caring for a family of

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their own. If Jennifer's not even married, how about she leave the business of "protecting marriage" to those of us who've actually chosen marriage and family? I mean, c'mon, give me a break. Is Jennifer the best that Schubert Flint has got to offer?
# posted by Chino Blanco : 9:55 AM

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