It's difficult, in a 24-hour new cycle, to think back even a few months and remember the lead stories that everyone was once talking about. What were the stories before autumn turned to winter and snowstorms eclipsed all other news. Before Minnesota's latest election recount, and Obama's "shellacking" and Bristol Palin's "Dancing with the Stars." For a few days last fall, shortly before the mid-term election, the local story that captured headlines was an "urgent message" from Archbishop John Nienstedt calling for an amendment to the state constitution that would make same-sex marriage illegal in Minnesota. The six-minute message from the Archbishop, titled "Preserving Marriage in Minnesota," called gay marriage a "dangerous risk" and was mailed to the homes of over 400,000 Catholics in the state. And then, as happens with all news, the story was forgotten. Between then and now a few thousand DVDs were returned to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. A few others became part of an art project and some are now covered with dirt and trash in landfills. But many more, probably the majority of DVDs, are still being viewed, shared and no doubt are quietly helping to set the stage for a divisive argument about same-sex marriage in 2011. Going into the November election, when both the state house and the senate were controlled by Democrats and there was hope for a Democrat winning the governor's office, proponents of gay marriage were excited about the prospects of passing a same-sex marriage bill in Minnesota. Now, with both houses going to the Republicans, the most supporters can do is work to prevent an amendment to the constitution. This is why the Archbishop's DVD is not yesterday's news. In the DVD, Archbishop Nienstedt says: "I hope we can all agree on this: If we are to change our societal understanding of marriage, it should be the people themselves, and not politicians or judges, who should make the decision." Well, we can't all agree on this for a number of reasons. First, the Archbishop conflates unrelated issues in his DVD from high rates of divorce and fatherless-ness to fragmentation of families – missing the point entirely that same-sex marriage is intended to strengthen gay families. The Archbishop also forgets that politicians and judges are representatives of the people. His reference to the legislative and judicial branches of our government as the "ruling elite" poses much more of a risk to society than does two people of the same sex marrying. With this DVD, the Archbishop blurs the critically important divide between church and state. Even though Archbishop Nienstedt's DVD is no longer on the front page, it remains a powerful tool that misrepresents the issue and is intended to scare viewers into taking action that will harm Minnesota. There needs to be a counter force that will get a different message of equality, fairness, tolerance and love into every house in the state. Too bad proponents of same-sex marriage don't have an anonymous donor to underwrite that side of the story.