100 Black Pastors Denounce Gay Rights-Civil Rights Comparison; Join Legal Fight for Michigan's Marriage Amendment
A group of about 100 African American pastors in Michigan have denounced the comparison being made between civil rights and "gays rights."
Holding a press conference Wednesday morning in Detroit, the group stated their intention of helping to defend Michigan's marriage amendment, which was recently declared unconstitutional.
Pastor James Crowder of St. Galilee Baptist Church and president of the Westside Minister's Alliance of Detroit, said in a statement that he took issue with the comparison.
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"On stage are many actors who pretend that redefining traditional marriage is as valid as blacks fighting against the carnage of chattel slavery and the humiliation of Jim Crow," said Crowder.
"Never have I been so insulted. The curtain must be pulled down on this play of disinformation."
Minister Stacy Swimp, spokesperson for the pastors and founder of the Michigan-based Revive Alive Missional Ministry, told The Christian Post about why the press conference was held.
"We wanted to hold the press conference to help get the message out that God is not dead. Moreover that there is yet a remnant of God's people who are willing to contend for the faith in the churches and in our local communities," said Swimp.
"In this instance, we announced that we filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of Michigan's 2004 voter approved Marriage Protection Act, and clearly in support of God's rights."
Swimp described the notion that gay rights are similar to civil rights as a "false narrative" often advanced by the LGBT activist media.
"The Civil Rights movement was based upon a righteous cause. Pastors led Christians around the nation to demand that government be true to the U.S. Constitution and uphold our God-given right of freedom," said Swimp.
"It was not a movement to break down the family or strip children of the only thing that can possibly unite them with their mom and dad: marriage."
The press conference was held a couple months after Judge Bernard Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan overturned Michigan's marriage amendment.
Passed in 2004 with 58 percent of the vote, Proposal 2 stated that marriage could only be recognized as a union of one man and one woman.
Nearly 2.7 million Michiganders voted in favor of Proposal 2, the campaign that received substantial financial support from the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Family Research Council.
As with other state marriage amendments approved by referenda, a judge recently struck down the amendment as unconstitutional.
"In attempting to define this case as a challenge to 'the will of the people,' state defendants lost sight of what this case is truly about: people," wrote Friedman.
"No court record of this proceeding could ever fully convey the personal sacrifice of these two plaintiffs who seek to ensure that the state may no longer impair the rights of their children and the thousands of others now being raised by same-sex couples."
For its part, the state of Michigan is appealing the Friedman decision and an appeals court has stayed the ruling until the process is completed.
