29 May 2012 More Project 21 Member Comments on Gay Marriage
In hopes of being a “game-changer,” the NAACP’s board of directors met last week — ahead of the July national convention — to hastily follow up on President Barack Obama’s “evolution” on gay marriage. The group’s leadership passed its own resolution that endorsed the redefinition of traditional marriage.
NAACP president and CEO Ben Jealous said: “Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law.” He added that the group feels the justification for gay marriage is “deeply rooted” in the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment.
Project 21 member Derryck Green disagrees. Derryck says:
By supporting a resolution in support of same-sex marriage, the NAACP has proven once more that it has outlived its importance and relevancy as a civil rights organization. To justify their support of same-sex marriage, I believe the NAACP has mistakenly invoked the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The 14th Amendment is one of the Reconstruction Amendments — passed to guarantee the protection and citizenship of the newly-freed slaves. By misappropriating the 14th Amendment to apply to same-sex marriage, the NAACP has undermined the original objective of the amendment to embrace an idea that the law was never meant to include.
The continued demise of the NAACP’s significance is also seen in their embrace of ideas and issues that disregard the best interests of many of its supporters. Along with this resolution, the group — purporting to fight for civil rights — has also opposed the embattled Proposition 8 traditional marriage ballot initiative in California that passed in 2008. Furthermore, they have opposed school choice — an issue that a majority of black Americans support. They also essentially came out in favor of abortion when they contested the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, which would have outlawed race-based abortions in light of some estimates that around 1,500 black children per day are lost to abortion.
Despite Jealous’s high aim and high hopes for the NAACP’s resolution in bringing about change, the group is not interested in taking on black churches. Roslyn Brock, the chairwoman of the NAACP’s board of directors, told the Associated Press: “[I]t is not our role, nor our intent, to express how any place of worship should act in its own house.”
But in the House and Senate? Where Obamacare was rammed through in 2010 and — as promulgated by the regulators — is now telling places of worship what to do? Oh, yeah — they demand change happen there.
The NAACP’s trepidation with black churches is likely due to the backlash from black clergy to the President’s flip-flop on gay marriage. Prominent black clergymen such as Bishop Harry Jackson, and the Reverent Emmett Burns are outspoken in their opposition — often saying that Obama put politics ahead of values. And, according to an April poll by Pew Research, only 39 percent of blacks polled support gay marriage.
Project 21 member Council Nedd II, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church, had this to add about Obama, the politics and the proponents of gay marriage in the black community and faith:
I was ordained and consecrated to be a minister of the Gospel. I’m assuming that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton took similar vows to mine where they swore to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Based on this, there is no way I believe they can reconcile their views on gay marriage and the Holy Bible.
A lot of black clergy have a choice to make — to be a preacher or a politician. They now must decide if they are standing up in God’s churches on Sundays to serve God or man. If they choose to serve man from the pulpit, they should be worried about the consequences.
What I would say to all of these black pastors who have now found themselves in a quandary – if you’re a Christian, be a Christian. And I encourage all Christians to hold their pastors accountable.
Al Sharpton attacks black pastors for not supporting Obama and gay marriage. I will remind those pastors who are feeling his pressure of something. Beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.