TALLAHASSEE (FBW)–Backers of the proposed Florida Marriage Protection Amendment held simultaneous news conferences at nine locations across the state Jan. 6 to announce the endorsement of the state constitutional amendment by hundreds of religious, political and business leaders and to announce an “ultimate mailing deadline” of Jan. 23 to receive petitions.

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Florida Baptists took leading roles in many of the news conferences, including Bill Bunkley, legislative consultant for the Florida Baptist Convention, who told the Tallahassee news conference that he is concerned about possible apathy about “gay marriage” among Floridians.

After months of focus on disaster relief in the wake of another busy hurricane season and the distractions of the recently passed holiday season, Bunkley said of Florida Baptists, “Of all the things you have been focusing on, we’d like you to focus in on this for the month of January,” adding that it was time to “get to work” to secure the necessary 611,000 petitions in order to put the marriage amendment on the November 2006 ballot.

John Stemberger, an Orlando attorney and chairman of Florida4Marriage.org, the coalition promoting the amendment, estimated at the Tallahassee news conference the group has collected as many as 225,000 petitions since the effort was launched at a Valentine’s Day news conference last year, although the Secretary of State’s office has officially certified only 151,956.

Stemberger called the petition drive a “Herculean task,” admitting “we are behind” in collecting petitions.

“This is the single largest citizens’ initiative in the country. No other state, including California, has more signatures to gather [to put questions before voters] than the State of Florida – in the history of the country,” he said.

The Florida Marriage Protection Amendment reads: “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

Coalition leaders insist the amendment is necessary because of the recognition of “gay marriage” in Massachusetts, which has resulted in legal challenges to Florida’s Defense of Marriage Act.

Nineteen other states have adopted similar state constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage.

Speaking at the Naples news conference, Florida Baptist State Convention President Hayes Wicker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Naples, said, “Every pastor must immediately mobilize his people to sign petitions and to enlist other citizens to do the same before January 23 in order to put this amendment on the ballot. … We must supernaturally and morally stand against that which is unnatural and unbiblical.”

At the Jacksonville news conference, held at the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes campus, Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, said traditional marriage is a “fundamental underpinning of our society and it’s in the best interest of children.” Wise is a member of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

Florida Baptist Convention family specialist Bob Mounts attended the Jacksonville news conference and issued a statement to Florida Baptist Witness expressing concern about “gay marriage.”

“If the pastors and churches do not aid in this effort, we are going to see a great increase in the strength of the homosexual agenda in the state of Florida,” Mounts said.

“There are enough Florida Baptists alone to accomplish [the petition drive] if we would broaden our view to see that Christianity is more than sitting in the pew of a church. This is an issue of applied Christianity. If we are really a ‘people of The Book,’ it is time to act it out in everyday life.

“99.999999 percent of Florida Baptists would be pro-life and pro marriage, yet we are hesitant to simply write our signature on a petition to aid in defining a position that can affect every generation to come. The time has come to be who we say we are,” he added.

In Ocala, Ed Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church, said, “Same-sex ‘marriage’ would subject our children to a vast, untested social experiment. … [W]e are standing here united in favor of protecting marriage and preserving the family as we know it for future generations of Floridians.”

Terry Kemble, a local pro-family leader and member of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, told the Tampa news conference, “The need for the amendment has become obvious in recent years as a small minority of activists are repeatedly challenging the current laws concerning marriage. … In our judgment, if there ever was a time for direct democracy, this is it.”

Ronda Storms, a Hillsborough County commissioner and member of First Baptist Church in Brandon, and Chris Gould, general manager of WTBN radio station and member of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, joined Kemple at the Tampa area news conference.

In order to meet the state’s Feb. 1 deadline necessary to get the amendment on the 2006 ballot, coalition organizers are requesting that petitions be mailed no later than Jan. 23. After that and before Feb. 1, petitions should be sent via overnight mail to Florida4Marriage.org, 4853 S. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32806. For more information, see www.Florida4Marriage.org.