Even before he declared, aides to Fred Thompson were confident their boss would soon reel in endorsements from a handful of high-profile evangelical leaders. Now that he’s made his candidacy official however, some marquee Christian Right activists, including Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, are backing away from Thompson. The reason: Thompson opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to the U.S Constitution.

The FMA would limit marriage to one man and one woman. Thompson favors a less sweeping amendment that would prevent states from having to honor marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in other states and that would force judges to defer to state legislatures on the question of whether to legalize gay marriage. God-o-Meter suspects Mitt Romney’s team is using this new season of doubt over Thompson to remind evangelical elites its candidate is the only top-tier GOPer to support the FMA–and that he championed a state amendment to ban gay marriage as governor of Massachusetts.

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