A psychologist, former NFL player, Harvard Business School graduate, and a former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan are part of a tight-knit group of Christian Right leaders strategizing for an expected final showdown over the definition of marriage in the court.

These men, who include Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson, predict that there is only 18 to 24 more months before the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage at the federal level as between one man and one woman, will be challenged in the Supreme Court.

But the evangelical leaders agreed in distress that churches and evangelical Christians are currently woefully unprepared to defend traditional marriage.

“One of my deep heartaches during Prop. 8 is the number of Christians who did not grasp how God feels about this topic (marriage),” said Dr. Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego and leader of the campaign to pass California‘s Proposition 8, during a radio broadcast on Dobson’s “FamilyTalk” last week.

Similarly, Gary Bauer, who formerly served eight years in President Ronald Reagan’s administration as under secretary of education and chief domestic policy advisor, said, “What really disturbs me is that some Christians are buying into this argument, ‘Well, I’m not in favor of same-sex marriage, but so what if we have it. It doesn’t affect my marriage. It doesn’t affect my family.'”

Bauer noted that there are currently ten different legal challenges to DOMA pending in various federal courts.

Last week, Dobson broadcasted a two-part series titled, “Fighting to Preserve the Defense of Marriage Act,” during which he invited five Christian Right leaders to discuss the tenuous situation of DOMA after President Obama announced in late February that he will no longer defend its constitutionality.

DOMA passed in Congress by a vote of 427 to 81 and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

The speakers on the show included: Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., a Harvard Business School graduate and senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md.; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, former NFL player and pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash.; Tony Perkins, a former U.S. Marine and president of Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council; Dr. Jim Garlow, who led thousands of pastors in California to defend traditional marriage; and Gary Bauer, president of American Values.

The same Christian leaders first gathered in a quickly-put-together conference call by Hutcherson on March 18, in which The Christian Post was the only media invited to participate.

During the March 18 call, Bauer had informed the other leaders that Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) had put together a Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group that included three Republicans and two Democrats to defend DOMA after President Obama announced that he will no defend the law’s constitutionality.

Bauer, who earned his law degree from Georgetown University, also highlighted that DOMA will likely soon end up at the Supreme Court where “no one knows” what will happen. He said the court is split between four conservative and four liberal justices with the deciding vote falling on Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote is “anybody’s guess.” But based on his past voting record, Kennedy gives conservatives something to worry about, he said.

“The whole institution of marriage, God’s institution, is literally hanging by a thread on how one Supreme Court justice out of nine will vote,” Bauer said during the private conference call.

Can the Public Influence the Supreme Court?

Perkins of Family Research Council during the “FamilyTalk” show noted that the Supreme Court “would like people to think that they are not political.” But he asserted that the justices are “gauging the public’s reaction” to DOMA.

Bauer commented, “I know they (Supreme Court justices) are supposed to only be looking at the constitution, but courts do care about whether if they are going to do something that causes outrage among the public.”

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