Faith Group Supports Miss Calif. Despite Revealing Photos

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

The organization that is featuring Miss California, Carrie Prejean, in a $1.5 million ad campaign opposing same-sex marriage is standing behind her, despite the revealing photos of her that have emerged on the Internet.

Prejean has become the star spokesperson for the anti gay-marriage movement, led by conservative Christians, after the recent Miss USA pageant where she expressed her opposition to gay marriage in response to a judge's question.

Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which is featuring Prejean in its ad campaign, had this to say in a statement this morning:

"Because Carrie honestly said what she believed in answer to a question -- marriage is the union of a man and a woman -- she is now the subject of ongoing character assassination. The level of hatred directed at her is astonishing. Even more astonishing is her personal courage and strength of character in the midst of these attacks. Of course Carrie is not perfect. On a personal note, as a former unwed mother, I want to say to Americans: you don't have to be a perfect person to have the right to stand up for marriage. Nothing gay marriage advocates can do can change the fact -- we all saw it on national TV -- that Carrie is a young woman who surrendered all the glitter Hollywood has to offer, because she would not become the kind of person afraid to say the truth."

It will be interesting to see how other opponents of gay marriage respond to the photos, which have been racing around the Internet. Prejean, because of her looks, her high profile and her outspoken religious beliefs, had been seen as a major weapon in the effort to oppose gay marriage.

Prejean released a statement vowing to fight on in the effort to defeat gay marriage initiatives, comparing her predicament, ironically, to those in the gay community:

"I am a Christian and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. The photos of me taken as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect and I will never claim to be perfect. But the attacks on me and others who speak in defense of marriage are precisely the kind of intolerant, offensive attacks that I hear some in the gay community say are hurled at them for their opinions. No one should have their opinion silenced through vicious and mean-spirited attacks on ones character and integrity."

By Jacqueline L. Salmon  |  May 5, 2009; 11:56 AM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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