A multi-year effort to allow Florida voters the opportunity to protect marriage is in serious jeopardy of not making the 2008 November ballot unless concerned citizens act immediately and decisively to collect an additional 22,000 petitions before Jan. 29.

Since Florida Baptists have been in the lead of this vital effort since its beginnings, it's incumbent upon our churches to mobilize in the next few days to ensure the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment reaches the 611,009 threshold of necessary petitions in order to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The shocking news that the marriage amendment had fallen back below the number of petitions necessary after eclipsing the requirement in December is well summarized in our page one story this week. As John Stemberger, chairman of Florida4Marriage.org, said, the time for finger-pointing to discover the culprit for this troubling turn of events will come later. Now, however, is the time to act.

Unless Florida Baptists and other concerned citizens can gather about 22,000 petitions—and since many submitted petitions are invalidated (for various reasons like duplication, the signer is not a registered voter, or other errors)—collecting perhaps as many as 50,000 petitions will be needed to make sure the marriage amendment qualifies for the ballot.

To date, 27 states have approved state constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage against the whims of judges who wish to force states to accept "gay marriage." It would be a serious set-back to this effort to protect marriage if Florida would fail to even qualify a marriage amendment for the ballot, even though the number of petitions necessary to get the measure on the ballot far exceeds that of any other state—ever! The advocates of "gay marriage" would take great glee at such a failure. More importantly, Florida would be vulnerable to a judicial ruling finding a constitutional "right" to "gay marriage."

The time to act is now. Here's what churches can do:

• At every public meeting between now and Jan. 29—and especially Sunday morning, Jan. 27—a strong appeal should be made urging members who are registered voters and who have not previously signed a petition to sign the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment petition. Petitions can be downloaded from www.Florida4Marriage.org or the Witness Web site.

• The petitions must be received by close of business on Tues., Jan. 29 at the Orlando office of the Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage, 4853 S. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32806. Petitions that cannot be hand-delivered to the coalition headquarters must be received before the close of business and should to be sent by overnight delivery to ensure its timely delivery.

• NOTE: Petitions cannot be sent directly to the local county supervisor of elections offices. They must be submitted by the sponsoring organization, the Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage.

• Contribute to the cause. Funds are urgently needed to finish this effort. Donations can be accepted at www.Florida4Marriage.org.

Because state elections officials will no longer provide a running tally of certified petitions, we will be in the dark, not knowing if enough petitions have been collected until after the deadline has passed. This fact further underscores the need for every concerned citizen to take every available effort to act immediately and collect as many new petitions as possible between now and Jan. 29.

There will be a time to look back and ask serious questions of state and local elections officials and determine who is at fault for this terrible state of affairs—as well as to determine what possible remedy may exist for wronged efforts, like the Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage, including whether the Florida Legislature has a role to play.

Nevertheless, for now our first concern must be getting more petitions. For the sake of traditional marriage in the Sunshine State, please act today.