THE MAN BEHIND THE MARRIAGE AMENDMENT: From Christianity Today

At a press conference inside the U.S. Capitol to promote the Federal Marriage Amendment, 40-year-old Alliance for Marriage (AFM) founder Matt Daniels is easy to spot. At 6 feet 5 inches, he towers over everyone else in the room.

The Washington, D.C. lawyer is the man behind the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), which would change the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union between one man and one woman. ...

Since the Alliance for Marriage's inception in 1999, Daniels and his ethnically, religiously, and politically diverse coalition have been prominent voices in the battle to preserve marriage. Their motto--"more children raised at home with a mother and a father"--drives their support for marriage tax exemptions, eliminating welfare penalties for married couples, promoting adoption--and, now, thwarting gay marriage. ...

Violence and abandonment marked Daniels's own unhappy childhood. He grew up in New York City's Spanish Harlem, the son of a nominally Catholic mother and a father "intellectually hostile" to the gospel.

Daniels was two when his father, a writer and Russian-speaking translator, abandoned the family. It was the second of four marriages he would desert, leaving "a trail of human suffering in his wake." Daniels recalls the uncertainty and fears of the resultant poverty. ...

Yet Daniels is no darling of the Right either. Some conservative groups, including Concerned Women for America (CWA) and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), criticized the Federal Marriage Amendment because it does not prevent state legislatures from approving same-sex civil unions and marriage benefits. ...

Many conservatives also complain that the AFM avoids debate over the morality of homosexuality. Instead it relies on sociological and economic arguments. ...

Having never seen a lifelong marriage modeled, Daniels doubted his ability to commit to one. He sought counseling from married couples within the church. "It seemed undoable to me," he says. "But my Christian faith was also telling me that I wasn't just going into this with my own resources, so I didn't have to be in fear."

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