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Republicans Voting for Same-sex Marriage Is a ‘Political Calculation’: Congressman

July 21, 2022

On Tuesday, 47 Republican congressmen voted in favor of the “Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill that was rushed for a House floor vote with little notice from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The measure would force every state to recognize same-sex marriages in the unlikely event that Obergefell v. Hodges is overturned. At least one congressman is calling the actions of these GOP members a “political calculation.”

“You’re going to find that because I believe the clergymen in this country have been asleep, they believe it is the only way to get reelected, if not this time [then] in the future,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), who voted against the bill, told Tony Perkins on Wednesday’s edition of “Washington Watch.” “And I think a lot of them are making a political calculation and saying, ‘Well, the churches are kind of slumbering asleep. The popular culture is pushing more and more people to approve the gay lifestyle. And therefore, politically, the way I’m going to keep my job is I’m going to vote that I respect or affirm gay marriage,’ which, of course, is something [that was] unheard of 40 years ago.”

At the time of the Obergefell ruling in 2015, which trumped all state laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman, over 30 states had enacted amendments protecting natural marriage democratically. Since then, there has been a marked cultural shift. According to Pew, support for same-sex marriage in the U.S. has risen since Obergefell.

Americans who have publicly upheld views in support of natural marriage since the Obergefell decision saw a sharp rise in “cancelations” from their jobs. One of the most prominent exceptions was the case of Jack Phillips, a Colorado cake baker who won a Supreme Court victory for the right to decline designing cakes for same-sex weddings.

As noted by Grothman, however, cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage has made its way into almost every corner of American society, including many churches. Research by George Barna has revealed that only about one in three pastors has a biblical worldview, which has led to a mere 6% of the adult population having one.

Grothman went on to assert that politicians on Capitol Hill seem to be taking their cues from the cultural winds.

“I think they are weighing up, you know, who’s going to win this fight?” he said. “Is it going to be the Christian churches or religion in general, or is it going to be won by the atheists? We just talked about the type of people who are running Disneyland or running Hollywood and that sort of thing. And I think these politicians … are making the political calculation that the churches will continue to be asleep and that two or four or six years from now as their political career progresses, it would have been advantageous to side with the gay lobby.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins was undeterred. “You may be right, and the church may slumber, but God does not,” he said. “I would always choose, as you did, to stand on the side of truth.”

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.