The Worst Reason To Go On A Hunger Strike

This has got to be one of the least respectable hunger strikes in recent memory. In response to a federal judge’s ruling that Virginia’s gay marriage ban is unconstitutional, a Christian organization in the state is launching a 40-day hunger strike to protest marriage equality. Depicting its crusade to deprive LGBT Virginians of marriage rights as “a David vs. Goliath battle,” the Family Foundation released a statement urging supporters to “join us zealously in humility and fasting in repentance before God” while the Supreme Court takes up the issue of marriage equality.

“Our state and nation are mired in a morass of confusion and post-modern thinking that does not believe in absolutes nor that any truth can even be known,” the statement reads. “Pagan philosophies, a secular humanist education establishment and an entertainment industry that is absolutely determined in pushing the envelope on decency and morality have all combined to turn this great land into a country that our forefathers could not even begin to recognize.”

Virginia passed an amendment banning marriage equality in 2006. When two same-sex couples sued to have the amendment struck down, former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli defended the ban in court; however, the Democrats who swept control of the state government in November reversed the state’s position on the amendment, and new Attorney General Mark Herring joined the plaintiffs in seeking to have the ban overturned. They were successful, and the case is now expected to head to the Supreme Court.

The Family Foundation will begin its “40 Days of Prayer, Fasting And Repentance For Marriage” in late August, and the fast will end two days before the Supreme Court starts its new term. Given the court’s recent inclination to rule in favor of gay marriage, there’s little reason to believe the hunger strike will accomplish anything other than a slight decrease in grocery sales in the state.