Good News (I think)

It appears that the last minute marriage amendment petitions sent to Florida4Marriage.org are sufficient to make up the deficit that was declared after an unprecedented audit a few weeks ago. We now must see if the supervisors of elections will count the petitions in the three full business days they now have before the legal ballot certification deadline, which is Friday. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to vote for defining marriage as between one man and one woman in November.

Here is the press release...


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

67 COUNTY SUPERVISORS OF ELECTIONS
TO NOW DETERMINE IF THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
WILL BE HEARD ON MARRIAGE AMENDMENT

(Orlando, FL) Wednesday, January 30, 2008. The final boxes of Florida Marriage Protection Amendment petitions received will be submitted today via overnight mail and hand delivery to the 67 County Supervisors of Elections offices and will be received on Thursday morning, January 31, 2008.

Orlando lawyer, John Stemberger, who heads the Florida4Marriage.org campaign stated, "On behalf of the more than three-quarters of a million voters who have signed the marriage petitions, I want to publicly thank each Supervisor of Elections for their hard work. We ask them now to do whatever it takes to process the outstanding petitions and avoid disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters in their counties."

Florida4Marriage.org, the official sponsoring committee, estimates they have received possibly as many as three times as many petitions as are required for certification. "They were pouring in almost faster than we could process them," said Stemberger. Overnight mail delivery of boxes of petitions was also sent out statewide on Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th. The real question, however, is whether supervisors of elections will act in good faith and count the petitions in the three full business days they now have after the primary election and before the legal ballot certification deadline. That deadline is February 1, 2008, at 5:00pm EST.
The state Division of Elections took the position that the statutory deadline for citizen's initiatives to submit petitions was December 31, 2007. On this date, according to the state Division of Elections website, the marriage effort had met and exceeded the required goal of 611,009 petitions by more than 8,000. After an unprecedented audit of the petitions, on Monday afternoon January 14, 2008, Florida4Marriage.org was notified by the Division of Elections that the effort was deficient by 30,000 less petitions. This deficiency was caused by 27,000 petitions being counted twice in Miami Dade County.

Campaign leaders, recognizing the immense effort it will take to count the petitions have offered the help of hundreds of people who could volunteer, be deputized or be hired to help process all the petitions in their county offices. This offer was made in a certified letter to all 67 county officials.

Stemberger said, "We are at the mercy of the professionalism of these public officials who are in a real sense the guardians of democracy. We pray they will do their job with all due diligence."

SPECIAL NOTICE TO MEDIA AND SUPPORTERS: According to the Division of Elections, it is their goal to have the final results announced on this Saturday February 2, 2008 at noon. In the alternative, the results will be announced on Monday February 4, 2008.

"Old and Alone" by Al Mohler

Al Mohler wote a great article this week on the affects of divorce upon children. Check it out.

Not My Letter

Years ago I read an interesting letter from a remorseful father written to columnist Ann Landers. I was not a father at the time, but I made up my mind that when I became one, I would never have to write this letter. It's pretty "heavy" stuff, but if it encourages someone to spend more time with their kids, here it is...

"Dear Ann,

I remember talking to my friend a number of years ago about our children. Mine were five and seven then, just the ages when their daddy means everything to them. I wish I could have spent more time with my kids but I was too busy working. After all, I wanted to give them all the things I never had when I was growing up. I loved the idea of coming home and having them sit on my lap and tell me about their day. Unfortunately, most days I came home so late I was only able to kiss them goodnight after they had gone to sleep. It is amazing how fast kids grow. Before I knew it, they were nine and eleven. I missed seeing them in school plays. Everyone said they were terrific, but the plays always seemed to go on when I was traveling for business or tied up in a special conference. The kids never complained, but I could see the disappointment in their eyes. I kept promising them I would have more time next year. But the higher up the corporate ladder I climbed, the less time there seemed to be. Suddenly, they were no longer nine and eleven, tyey were fourteen and sixteen, teenagers. I didn’t see my daughter when she went on her first date or my son’s championship basketball game. Mom made excuses and I managed to telephone and talk to them before they left the house, but I could hear the disappointment in their voices. But I explained as best I could. Don’t ask me where the years have gone. I can’t believe it. My job is less demanding now and I finally have time, but they are grown and have their own interests and they have little time for me. To be perfectly honest, I’m a little hurt. It seems like yesterday they were five and seven. I’d give anything to live those years over now. You can bet I’d do it differently, but they are gone now and so is my chance to be a real daddy."

IMPORTANT ALERT!

Florida4Marriage.org has learned today that the Division of Elections, after a statewide unprecedented "audit", has revised the total number of petitions on file and we are now 21,989 petitions short of the 611,009 required. We must immediately make up the difference prior to the February 1st deadline. If you have not signed a petition to place on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, please do so now. Click HERE for the forms. Florida4Marriage.org needs the petitons in their possession by January 29th to process them before the February 1st deadline.

High Impact Church Conference

I attended a "High Impact Church Conference" today at Urban Impact Ministries in Hialeah. Special thanks to Al Fernandez who works hard to help equip churches and train pastors in South Florida. Al is an example of cooperative program dollars working well. Here are some random reflections and actual quotes from the conference. Most of these speak just to pastors, but maybe this will give you some insight into what a pastor's life is like.

"Preaching weekly is like delivering a baby every Sunday and then finding out on Monday that you are pregnant again."

“Once you open the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to run.” (Speaking of moral relativism in our society)

"If you ask lost people, 'What do Christians stand for?' you’ll have to go through one hundred people citing different political issues before hearing someone say 'Jesus Christ is Lord.'"

“If truth is what we decide it is or what a majority of people say it is, then we are a ship without a rudder.”

"Discipline is not working long and hard. Lots of lazy people work very hard. Discipline is doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”

“Dear God, give me a holy disregard for what people think.”

“The moment I’m preaching and I care whether people like me is the moment I’m no longer concerned with what God is saying.”

When preaching is good, people will say “I like him.” When preaching is great, they’ll say “He loves me.”

What Put Huck Over the Top

CNN entrance poll results from Iowa reveal that a whopping 3% of Iowans were influenced by the endorsement of Brenda and Jesse Harden. When told about their impact on the Huckabee victory, Brenda replied "I want a cookie." Her Daddy gave her one.