A conservative legal group has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Virginia pastor aimed at stopping a proposed state amendment that would redefine marriage in the Virginia Constitution.
The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center filed the suit Oct. 22 in the circuit court of Prince William County on behalf of Ben Purves, pastor of community and member care at Occoquan Bible Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., challenging the proposed Amendment 2 on procedural grounds. Purves and a group of fellow pastors are also calling on Virginians to fast and pray on Election Day.
Amendment 2, pushed by LGBTQ activist groups, would replace a 2006 amendment to the Virginia Constitution that codified marriage as โthe union of one man and one woman.โ LGBTQ activists acknowledge that if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide, the 2006 marriage definition on Virginiaโs books would be enforceable again.
Purves, who leads a coalition of Virginia pastors opposing the proposed amendmentโas well as another that would enshrine abortion into the stateโs constitutionโalleges that legal requirements, which specify that any proposed constitutional amendment be posted on courthouse doors and โโavailable for public inspection,โ no later than three months before the intervening general election of members of the House of Delegates,โ were not met in 2025 when the proposed amendment first came before voters.
โThese steps exist to inform the voters before the pivotal House of Delegates election. They were not performed before the Nov. 4, 2025, general election by the Clerk of the House of Delegates or the Circuit Court Clerk or any other Virginia circuit court,โ the complaint states.
Therefore, the lawsuit argues, the amendment would therefore be โinvalid and of no effectโ if voters pass it on Nov. 3.
Defendants in the suit are the Virginia Elections Department, the Virginia Elections Board, the Prince William County Electoral Board. Virginia House of Delegatesโ Clerk G. Paul Nardo, and Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk Jacqueline Smith.
โThis proposed amendment is wrong for Virginia for many reasons, including that it opens the door to greater threats to religious freedom,โ Purves said in a statement. โIn bringing this suit, I am standing on behalf of many Virginians, especially pastors, who oppose this misguided initiative.โ
A Call to Fast & Pray
Purves leads a group called Pastors of Virginia, also known as VirginiaPastors.org.
โWe must recognize that consequential issues are at stake,โ the groupโs website says in a letter calling for fasting and prayer on Nov. 3. โShould the anti-Christian amendments that have been proposed be ratified, more pre-born children will be destroyed in the womb, Godโs institution of marriage will be defaced in law, and the deception of transgender ideology will be enshrined in our constitution.โ
The letter continued: โBiblical fasting is not the mere skipping of meals, but it includes soul searching and humble repentance that is joined to set apart times of prayer. Meals that have been set aside are replaced with prayer. Fasting and prayer without obedience is condemned in Scripture (Isaiah 58:1-12). Likewise, the one who labors without prayerful dependence upon the Lord should expect a fruitless return (John 15:1-5). The Scriptures give multiple examples of those who earnestly sought the Lordโs intervention with prayer and fasting at critical times in Israelโs history (Ezra 9:5, Nehemiah 1:4, Esther 4:3, Daniel 9:3).
โWe know that the Lordโs blessing is on those who come to him in repentance and faith. He delights to lift up the humble and he casts down the proud. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord (Proverbs 21:1), and this reality extends to every creature. So let us fast and pray that God would have mercy on the state of Virginia.โ
