The former Disney star and tween sensation Miley Cyrus recently expressed her support for gay marriage and faulted family values candidate Rick Santorum and his alleged corporate supporters for affirming traditional marriage.
Cyrus, in an effort to attack retailer Urban Outfitters for allegedly copying jewelry designs, linked the company to Santorum and mocked the presidential contender's statements opposing gay marriage in a Twitter message last week.
She alleged the company gave $13,000 to the presidential contender and mocked his stance with the quote, "'IF WE ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE NEXT THING U KNOW PEOPLE WILL BE MARRYING GOLD FISH' - Rick Santorum."
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania U.S. senator, has long been a champion for the family and social conservatism. In his book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, says marriage between a man and a woman is important to the rearing of children, not just companionship or sexual gratification.
"Every known society has some form of marriage. And it's always about bringing together a male and a female into the kind of sexual union where the interests of children under the care of their own mother and father are protected," he wrote.
To legalize gay marriage, Santorum says, means "society will teach the next generation that marriage is a self-centered endeavor primarily about adult satisfaction, not children's well-being."
Santorum's position on marriage comes from his Catholic faith and aligns with Christian values. Cyrus professes she is a Christian but says she also supports gay marriage.
Christian photographer Tammy Hudson tweeted, "What happened to that Christian girl from [Tennessee] with decent moral values and a lot of heart?" in response Miley's comments about Santorum.
Cyrus responded, "What an ignorant statement. I don't have 'a lot of heart' cuz [sic] I'm not gonna [sic] be a closed minded hypocrite? LOVE IS LOVE. GOD IS LOVE."
The former Hannah Montana singer made similar statements in the past equating an accepting stance to same-sex marriage to God's command to love.
When former Miss California Carrie Prejean expressed her support for biblical marriage between a man and a woman in 2009, Cyrus tweeted to celebrity blogger and open homosexual Perez Hilton, "God's greatest commandment is to love, and judging is not loving."
She continued, "I am a Christian and I love you – gay or not. Because you are no different that [sic] anyone else! We are all God's children! I am not saying this so would be nice on your site though that would be nice ... but because the LORD has spoken 'luv [sic] cuz [sic] God loves.'"
At that time, MTV reality star Heidi Montag followed up with a similar tweet: "God says in the Bible that we should love our neighbor and he created us all as equals. I know in my heart that gays and lesbians should have the same government rights that Spencer and I will when we get married."
Randy Thomasson, president of pro-family advocacy group Save California, responded to the tweets, saying Cyrus, Montag and other misled Christians are displaying a kind of "cotton-candy truth disguised as 'Christian.'"
The real truth, says Thomasson, is that while love is the greatest commandment, God commands those who love Him to obey His teachings. God and His son Jesus both teach that homosexuality is a sexual sin and marriage is between a man and a woman only, he maintains.
"Miley Cyrus and Heidi Montag are in stark conflict with Jesus Christ and the Bible," Thomasson asserts.
Thomasson quotes Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6. The passage states, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate."
For this reason, he says, marriage belongs only between one man and one woman.
Santorum, who has launched his exploratory committee for the GOP bid for 2012 race, has not responded publicly to Cyrus' remarks nor to the assertion that he received funds from Urban Outfitters.
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