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Focus on The Family
2003 Year In review
"Here, in no particular order, are our nominees for the Top Ten news stories
of 2003:
** Roy Moore's Ten Commandments fight: The nation's attention focused on
Montgomery, Ala., this August, as Moore, the state's chief justice, defied a
federal court order that he remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda
of the state judicial center. After several days of prayer vigils and protests,
Moore was suspended and the monument removed; three months later, he was ousted
from office.
** Massachusetts court creates right to homosexual
"marriage": In November, the Bay State's Supreme Judicial Court found it
unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Its order was
stayed, however, to give the Legislature time to respond; lawmakers planned a
February vote on a constitutional amendment to preserve the traditional
definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
** Episcopalians consecrate a homosexual bishop: In August, the Episcopal
Church, USA, approved the Rev. Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as bishop of
the Diocese of New Hampshire. The controversy that erupted in the weeks and
months afterward left the church on the verge of a split as the year drew to a
close.
** Federal Marriage Amendment introduced: U.S. Rep.
Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., introduced in
their respective houses of Congress a proposed amendment to the U.S.
Constitution to codify the definition of marriage as the union of one man and
one woman. Many family advocates have said such an amendment is the only way to
protect traditional marriage from the meddling of liberal courts.
** Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act passed: After more than a decade, and a pair
of vetoes from the pen of former President Clinton, the Partial Birth Abortion
Ban Act of
2003 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The first
federal restriction on abortion since Roe v. Wade, it was immediately blocked in
court by abortion advocates -- amid promises by the Bush administration to
launch a strenuous legal defense.
** U.S. Supreme Court OKs sodomy: On a 5-4 vote, the U.S.
Supreme Court in June struck down Texas' law against homosexual sodomy. Many
legal scholars -- including Associate Justice Antonin Scalia -- viewed the
ruling in Lawrence v. Texas as opening the door to the declaration of a
constitutional right to homosexual "marriage." A convicted bigamist later tried
to use the Lawrence ruling's finding that the government has no business
legislating what goes on in people's bedrooms as grounds for overturning his
convictions.
** Terri Schiavo saved from starvation: Florida legislators and Gov. Jeb Bush
responded to the pleas of hundreds of thousands of Americans in October by
passing legislation to prevent the death of Terri Schiavo, a disabled woman
whose husband had secured a court order to allow her to be starved and
dehydrated to death. As the year ended, Schiavo was still alive, and her husband
was still in court seeking to have "Terri's Law" overturned.
** Democrats continue to block Bush court nominees:
Liberals' unprecedented blockade of President Bush's judicial nominees continued
for a second year, with Senate filibusters of six conservative nominees to the
federal bench. One of them, Miguel Estrada, withdrew his name from consideration
in September, saying he no longer wished to be attacked by Democratic senators
like Charles Schumer and Patrick Leahy.
** Abercrombie & Fitch boycott works: Clothier Abercrombie & Fitch pulled its
pornographic Christmas catalogs from stores at the height of the holiday
shopping season after Focus on the Family and other pro-family groups called for
a boycott. The company's sales showed a precipitous drop in the subsequent
weeks.
** Berkshire Hathaway stops funding abortion: When pro-lifers -- many of them
stay-at-home moms -- working for The Pampered Chef learned of new owner Warren
Buffett's long history of support for the abortion industry, they launched a
grassroots protest. The result?
The end of money flowing from Buffet's multibillion-dollar conglomerate,
Berkshire Hathaway, to the abortion industry."
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Gary Schneeberger
Editor
Pete Winn
Associate Editor
Trish Amason
Editorial Coordinator
Peter Brandt
Director, Issues Response
Tom Minnery
Vice President, Public Policy
Don Hodel
President and CEO, Focus on the Family
Dr. James C. Dobson
Founder and Chairman, Focus on the Family
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Copyright (c) 2003, Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International
copyright secured. CitizenLink is a policy and culture information service of
Focus on the Family, a ministry sustained by the contributions and prayers of
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aChristianHome.com - 2003
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