Houston, TX -   The Texas Pastor Council, an inter-racial, inter-denominational organization representing local pastor councils in Houston, Austin, Beaumont, El Paso and other pastors throughout the state, issued the following statement in response to Dallas-area State District Court Judge Tena Callahan’s ruling yesterday to grant a divorce to a same sex couple:

“We have no doubt that neither a Texas Appeals Court, the Texas Supreme Court nor any federal court in the foreseeable future will uphold this outrageous act of judicial aggression against marriage, representative government and the Texas Constitution by Judge Tena Callahan.  Her arrogant act attempting to single-handedly overturn the vote of 1,723,782 Texans who voted in 2005 for Proposition 2, placing in our state Constitution that marriage is only between one man and woman, is legally and morally indefensible.

“Torturing out of our state Constitution and Family Code that a court may dissolve an institution which does not legally exist under Texas law, using the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution as the weapon, is the very reason we mobilized pastors and pro-marriage citizens across this state, lobbied the legislature and won this important victory.  We reject the premise that one judge acting as a monarch may overturn the majority votes of both chambers of our legislature and seventy-six percent of the Texas voters.”

“Thirty out of thirty states who have put this vote before the people have passed constitutional protections against this very kind of judicial activism and out of control judges like Callahan.  She has proven herself unfit to serve on the bench and we not only support Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s commitment to appeal this decision as far as needed for victory, we will again mobilize pastors of every race and denomination across Texas to stand with him.”