COLONY — Kris Kobach told nearly 100 people gathered here Sunday morning for a community church service that same-sex marriage “is a mess that is affecting our culture.”
Kobach, 44, is seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state and used the Colony forum to lay out his conservative religious views.
He said the nation was the worse for having removed prayer and Bible reading from the schools, and from Supreme Court decisions that banned the Ten Commandments in courthouses and other public venues.
Members of the Continental Congress meant for America to be a Christian nation, Kobach said.
“The day after they drafted the First Amendment — respecting freedom of religion — they established a day of prayer for the nation,” he said.
“Things are very different today,” Kobach observed. “We have a number of (court) decisions that have transformed and removed religion in public places.”
His encouraged his audience “to keep religion in the public square” and fight against abortion and same-sex marriage, legal today in five states.
“Is it going to stop? I don’t think so,” he said. “We’re not close to a national marriage amendment. There’s no motivation in Congress and we, the people, need to put pressure on our representatives in Congress” to pass one, particularly if Republicans seize control in mid-term elections Nov. 2.
He said Christian influence in the nation had been defeated incrementally, and used the metaphor about the frog and hot water as an illustration. The frog was placed in a pail of water that was heated slowly, with the water temperature finally reaching a terminal point without the frog noticing.
“In 1960 we had a strong Christian influence in the nation and today, 2010, are we going to try to do something” about the loss of influence, he asked.
He encouraged his listeners to “put on the armor of God and pray. Get on the battlefield all around us — the schools, your neighborhoods, voting booths — and write letters to newspaper editors.”
“We must turn from our wicked ways,” Kobach admonished.
Before focusing on same-sex marriage, he said the United States was great “because it was founded under God,” noting the Founding Fathers often mentioned God in commentaries.
“Jefferson said God gave life and gave us liberty,” Kobach recalled. “Washington talked about the omnipotence of God leading us to independence. Tom Paine said God was the king of the United States and reigned above all.
“During the Civil War, Lincoln was asked if God was on the Union side. He said, ‘My concern is to be on God’s side.’”
The service was scheduled for Colony’s city park but was moved to the community room at City Hall because of threatening weather. Also participating were Colony pastors Mark McCoy and Steve Bubna. Lloyd Houk, Moran, sang and led several patriotic songs.
KOBACH was born in Wisconsin and raised in Topeka. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, master’s degree and doctorate from Oxford, through a scholarship awarded by the British government, and then was graduated from Yale University School of Law.
After a short stint working in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Lawrence, Kobach began a law professorship at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He also worked for Attorney General John Ashcroft under the Bush administration.
In 2004 he lost a bid for the Kansas 3rd Congressional District House seat to Democrat Dennis Moore. He was chairman of the Kansas Republican Party for two years ending in January 2009.
He and wife Heather and their three daughters live in Piper, a suburb of Kansas City in Wyandotte County. He is a member of Christ Church.
