About 1,000 people gathered at the state Capitol yesterday for what organizers dubbed "God's Ohana Day," a day of prayer and music that, according to its advance billing at least, was not about the civil unions bill currently in limbo in the state Senate.

The rally, which included worshippers from a network of mostly Christian churches around the island, was organized by the Hawai'i Family Forum, the same group that organized last month's rally in opposition to House Bill 444, which would allow civil unions.

"We want to turn the focus away from civil unions and focus instead on the needs of the people of the state of Hawai'i," said former state Rep. Dennis Arakaki, interim head of the Hawai'i Family Forum.

"It's more of a distraction from the real issues," Arakaki said. "Obviously the economy should be No. 1, but we're also concerned with cuts in services and programs, especially for the homeless, the mentally ill and the physically disabled. And of course, cuts in education. If we could get as much attention focused on these issues as we did on civil unions ... "

NOT JUST CIVIL UNIONS

Christine Pleuss, 57, of Kailua, came to the rally with other members of Blessed Sacrament church in Pauoa. She said she attended the rally out of a concern for a broader range of issues than just civil unions.

"The cause is what brought me here," she said. (One of the speakers) mentioned abortion, assisted suicide, all of the applicable questions that are coming up, and civil unions is just one of them. We have so many other things to focus on — the state of the state, our economy, our schools — let's just focus on those and not get distracted."

Still, there was no mistaking the central issue that drew much of the red-clad crowd and the line of religious leaders who addressed them.

Volunteers set up tables, walked amidst the crowd and lined Beretania Street soliciting people to sign cards to state senators that express their opposition to the civil-unions measure.

Other volunteers passed out anti-civil unions literature, including a brochure published by the Pennsylvania-based American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property titled "10 Reasons Why Homosexual 'Marriage' is Harmful and Must be Opposed."

Several of the speakers addressed the economy and other issues, leading the crowd in prayers for divine guidance for state lawmakers, but they specifically addressed the civil unions bill, calling on worshippers to remain vigilant in their scrutiny of the senate.

Yesterday's event was a slightly more subdued affair than last month's rally, which drew an estimated 5,000 people. There were no signs and no visible counter-protesters.

State Public Safety officers stationed at the rally estimated the crowd at approximately 1,000 at its peak.

Pepe Toelupe, 49, of Wai'anae, said he came to the rally to lend his voice to the fight against civil unions, which he views as an affront to "natural law."

"If this bill passes, my kids will go to school and be exposed to girls with girls and boys with boys," he said. "Civil rights belong to a man and a woman who are married by law. This bill conflicts with natural law."

ANGER AT LAWMAKERS

Many of the people in attendance expressed frustration at what they see as the state Legislature's desire to pass a measure that they say does not reflect the values of the majority of voters — a measure, they add, that resuscitates an issue decided 11 years ago when Hawai'i voters rejected a same-sex marriage ballot measure.

"My main question to the legislators that we elect is this: Why is the voice of the multitudes not acknowledged?" said Judith Maile Anderson, 63, of Kane'ohe, a member of an Assembly of God church. "It seems they are swayed by a voice of what we're talking to be less than 10 percent of the population who wants to endorse same-sex marriage."

Dane Senser, 56, of Honolulu, expressed similar frustration.

"I have faith in God, but I'm losing faith in our politicians," Senser said. "I think people are expressing that they don't have faith that our elected officials do the right thing, the will of the people. But by being here today, they're showing that they're hoping and praying that they do."

Senser said that he and others are upset that legislators "are trying to redefine marriage and take the sanctity of marriage away from us."

He said he suspects that the Senate is waiting for public scrutiny to wane before passing the bill quickly and quietly, something he said is not going to happen.

"We're not going to let up until that bill is dead," he said.