If it were not for the war against terrorism in Iraq, the one issue that would be dominating this fall’s elections would be homosexual marriage.

No other issue has the potential for completely and permanently changing American society as does the effort to force the American public to accept homosexual marriage and child-rearing.

If homosexual marriage is given legal recognition by the American courts, a vast social experiment will be unleashed that will render marriage culturally meaningless and impact the lives of millions of children.

The impact on children is often curiously missing from the mouths and pens of those who support homosexual marriage.

Most often their arguments endorsing same-sex unions center on consenting adults seeking legal recognition of their love or on homosexuals exercising their civil rights as an oppressed minority.

But this issue is about far more than whether two men or two women who engage in homosexual acts should have their sexual preferences given the status and blessings of marriage.

It is more fundamentally about redefining family and about raising children.

For instance, consider the much-publicized adoption of a child by Rosie O’Donnell and her lesbian partner.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer on the ABC television network’s program Primetime Live, O’Donnell related that Parker, the little boy she adopted, had asked her, “Mommy, why can’t I have a daddy?”

O’Donnell answered Parker’s question by telling him, “Because I’m the kind of mommy who wants another mommy.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter what is best for a little boy whose natural instincts and natural needs are for a father.

If we accept Rosie’s line of thinking, what now matters most is what she wants or what other homosexuals want.

Sadly, the little boy in her custody will have it drilled into his head that he doesn’t need a father in his life, and that two mommies or two daddies are as good as or better than having a mommy and daddy.

This view will be forced upon all children if we allow the government to thrust same-sex marriage upon us.

It will be taught in every public school.

Pictures and stories in public school textbooks will promote same-sex marriages as normal and healthy.

The rights of parents to remove their children from classes that they find offensive will be seriously infringed and eventually eliminated completely.

And those parents who resist the indoctrination of their children will be the ones discriminated against and have their civil and religious rights violated.

The writing is on the wall and it could not be clearer.

Unfortunately, opponents of homosexual marriage are not being represented though they are in the majority.

While polls in every state indicate overwhelming opposition to same-sex marriage, most politicians in Washington and in our state capitols are failing to act to protect marriage between men and women because they fear being labeled politically incorrect or fear being bullied by homosexual activists.

Even in a state as conservative as Alabama our state Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have allowed the people the right to vote on an amendment to the state constitution to protect marriage.

To be fair, state legislators heard very little on this issue from Alabama pastors, usually a strong voice regarding moral concerns impacting the state.

You would think that the vast majority of state legislators would not need to hear from Alabama’s clergy to be motivated to protect marriage.

But if you think that, you really don’t know who “we the people” have been sending to Montgomery to represent us.

While Alabama has one of the strongest defense of marriage laws in the country, it is only a statute and much more easily changed than a constitutional amendment.

Moreover, an amendment to the state constitution would protect marriage from an activist state judge as well as be more difficult for a federal judge to overturn.

Still, a state constitutional amendment would mean very little to a federal judge who has no regard for our right to self-government.

Thus, the next step to protect marriage must be the passage of a marriage protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution by Congress, which will most likely not happen given the current membership of Congress.

And that is why this fall’s elections may well be the most important in America’s history.

While the war against terrorism is vital to our national security and while jobs and pocketbook issues are important too, the single most important issue we will decide will be the direction America will go on same-sex marriage.

Voters need to force the politicians to show us where they stand on this issue and we need to let them know where we stand.

We can do that this fall with our votes.