"We look to Jesus Christ, pray to him each morning (in an opening prayer in the House.) He blessed all people but didn't lower his standards. He called people to come up to those standards," said HJR25 sponsor Christensen, R-Draper.

Ure said he knows a number of gay people, "and I love many of them." But he also sanctifies marriage and won't recognize that for anyone other than a man and a woman.

"I'm not telling you that God does not love people who are gay. God loves gays just as well as anyone else. But like the founders (of the U.S. Constitution), we have a right to declare we'll follow the nature of God's laws" — marriage being one of those, he said.

Democrats have accused the majority Republicans of sending political messages this session, trying to play to the public in an election year for the governor's office, all of the Utah House and half the Utah Senate.

"This is not political electioneering," Christensen said. "We are glad to take a stand on abortion (another emotional debate this session). We should have more moral legislation. Let America look to Utah on moral legislation."

Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, voted for HJR25. But first he tried to amend the resolution to take out "broad language" meant to clearly prohibit any kind of civil union recognitions between same-sex couples.

Ferrin fears unintended consequences, that some unmarried couples, even heterosexual couples, could be denied joint property ownership, bank accounts and so on. Christensen denied that could happen and spoke against the proposed change, which failed.

Christensen, an attorney who frequently quotes the Founding Fathers and previous court cases in arguing his points, quoted from events in 1954, saying that year "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. He said the country has since declined to where last year an Alabama high court judge was removed from office for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from a courthouse.

Indeed, said Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, 1954 was an important year. That was when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision that overturned racial segregation in schools.

While Republicans slam "activist" judges in same-sex marriage cases, where would America be without that civil rights decision, which some Americans criticized at the time, Litvack said. HJR25 in the Utah Constitution "leaves us stuck," not able to adopt other equal rights laws pertaining to gays and lesbians, he said.

Clearly aiming a verbal jab at House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, who presided over Tuesday's debate and is running for governor, Biskupski quoted from Stephens' opening-day remarks, saying lawmakers must be "protectors of individual freedoms and liberties rather than takers of those liberties."

Christensen responded, saying Biskupski and others had distorted the comments by Stephens, the Constitution and Founding Fathers' in the debate.

He said in recent years, some Americans and some judicial rulings have engaged in "moral relativism, turned separation of church and state on its head, taken God out of the picture."

Those people, he said, have tried to say that 1 percent of the population — some estimates of the number of homosexuals — should "have affirmative rights to change all of civilization" through marriage. But that would just be wrong, Christensen added.

---

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com