NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Several hundred Christian conservatives held a rally on Legislative Plaza in Nashville Thursday morning.
The rally was sponsored by the Tennessee Pastors Network.
Topics addressed included what the association calls “a lax immigration system, weak terrorism laws, education, healthcare, religious liberty protections and traditional marriage.
A number of Tennessee state lawmakers were on hand for the rally. They told the crowd that a bill entitled the Tennessee Defense of Natural Marriage Act had just been introduced to the legislature.
State Senator Mae Beavers of Lebanon is one of the bill’s sponsors.
“We’re declaring that we will protect our government officials, our ministers in the State of Tennessee that perform marriages; and that the Attorneys General will defend them. We’re upholding what the people in Tennessee voted for. Eighty percent of the people voted to define marriage as between one man and one woman.”
WMOT asked Senator Beavers how such a law, if passed, might be enforced in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding same-sex marriage. The Senator responded that marriage falls under the purview of the states and that the Supreme Court cannot make law.