Black Faith Leaders Launch $1M Campaign Against Obama's Pro-Gay Marriage Stance
With three weeks to go before the General elections on Nov. 6, a group of black leaders are stepping up their mission to convince at least 25 percent of African Americans who voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 to vote on their biblical principles on issues such as homosexuality.
"Our goal is not to campaign against President Obama or any individual candidate. We seek rather to call people to vote above their emotions, party affiliations, and even their personal opinions, and to vote God's values," said Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Executive Committee member of nonprofit group "God Said".
"Each day brings us closer to realizing this goal. Many people are rethinking their options as far as the voting process is concerned. Online polls confirm that people are concerned about the 'marriage factor' and that it will impact their decisions at the poll," King added in an email to The Christian Post, although she could not estimate how many people are reconsidering their vote.
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The Texas-based organization has announced that it will spend $1 million on TV and radio ads in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida urging African-Americans to vote on God's values, noting that "God said marriage is between one man and one woman". Voters are being urged to consider "God's values and not their party's."
Obama and GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney present two different opinions on the same-sex marriage debate. The president announced in May that he supports gay marriage, noting that his opinion had "evolved" on the issue, while Romney has stated that he is for preserving the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.
When asked what a second Obama term might mean for supporters of traditional marriage, Dr. King told CP:
"God's natural plan for marriage between one man and one woman has lasted for thousands of years, although many efforts have been made to destroy the institution of Natural Marriage. No one will be able to destroy what God has ordained. The question should be -- are people willing to vote God's way?"
The organization notes that in 2008, 95 percent of the black vote went to President Obama, who has a black father and a white mother but is considered the first African-American president in U.S. history, making his 2008 victory historic.
The God Said organization notes, however, that the black community is among the most religious in America, yet has often chosen to side with the secular views of the Democratic Party on issues such as gay marriage, which they say stands in contradiction to the Christian faith.
"We (African-Americans) are culturally a religious body of people. I think that for the most part, we understand what it says as far as where God stands on these very important issues. We felt it was necessary to speak out what God said," said Dr. Day Gardner, co-founder of the God Said campaign in a previous interview with The Christian Post.
He added that the group was formed after the Obama administration made it clear that they would be supporting same-sex marriage, thus forcing church leaders to react and remind voters that traditional Christian principles go against such a plan.
"We really had to stand up and speak loudly for God's Word," Gardner commented.
