African-American pastors rally in support of marriage amendment

Photo courtesy Florida Family Policy Council

Pastors and leaders supporting the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment, on the ballot in the general election in November, met Sept. 24 at Beulah Baptist Institutional Church in Tampa to kick off a five-stop appearance to mobilize black pastors and voters in Florida.

TAMPA (FBW)—Filling the pulpit before a backdrop of about 40 Tampa Bay area pastors, a coalition of African-American pastors Sept. 24 announced their support of a state constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage.

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Urging support of Amendment 2, the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment, pastor of the host church, Beulah Baptist Institutional, W. James Favorite, told reporters he believes the comparison of gay marriage to the fight for equality by black men and women in America is wrong.

A “life-long” member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Favorite reacted with surprise when he learned after the news conference the Florida NAACP is opposed to the amendment—which puts him and potentially many of its members at odds with the organization.

“It would be an abomination in the Tampa area if someone was to say that, especially a representative of the NAACP, because it does not represent the populous here,” Favorite told the Witness. “It certainly isn’t one that I would abide by and certainly if the Florida NAACP is taking those kinds of stands then I think they are going to end up losing a lot of members because it certainly would be against the church.”

Favorite said he believes if an action was taken by the organization’s body, as its president has said, it should have been announced in local meetings and widely publicized.

“I don’t know why anybody in NAACP would say anything like that when the NAACP came out of the church,” Favorite said. “It’s just in diabolical opposition to what we actually believe in.”

Moments before, Favorite stood with supporters of Amendment 2 at the first of five stops in Florida to mobilize minority pastors. President of Pastors on Patrol, a 200-strong coalition of local pastors, Favorite said he is “offended” when the fight for legalized marriage is compared to the struggle African Americans face for civil rights or acceptance.

“I am offended at the suggestion that the plight of people who engage in certain sexual behavior is anywhere near equivalent to the struggle of black men and women in this country who suffered and many died for simple equality,” Favorite said. “Gay people were never denied the right to vote or to drink out of a water fountain or to sit where they pleased on a public bus. Gay people have never been hosed down with water canons or beaten back by police officers because they were denied personhood. Gay people have never been spat upon for the color of their skin or lynched like animals in the field for trying to gain their freedom.

“How dare anyone and certainly the gay community for saying that their efforts to normalize their sexual desires are anything like the struggle that my people have faced and gone through,” Favorite continued. “Homosexuality [has] the elements of choice and volition, being black is a God-given, inherent and unchangeable characteristic.”

Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., founder and chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, a values-based group promoting racial reconciliation, said one of the most important issues confronting Americans involves marriage and family.

“America is in moral freefall,” Jackson said. “This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue in which we are believing that Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, rich and poor should come together.”

Jackson said he believes without the Amendment, same-sex marriage would involve a “great social experiment” that hasn’t been thought out.

“Our job as clergymen is to speak out against the moral ills of our day and we’re saying marriage is right and we want people to vote ‘yes’ on Amendment 2,” Jackson said.

NAACP opposes Amendment 2

Adora obi Nweze, president of Florida’s NAACP told the Witness in a Sept. 20 interview the organization voted this year during a quarterly meeting to oppose the amendment. She was unsure of date or location of the meetings, but said one was a meeting of the executive committee and one included representatives from across the state. Nweze also was ambivalent about attendance at the meetings, but said the actions taken are included in the meeting’s minutes. Nweze “seriously doubt[ed]” if it would be possible to produce or release the minutes, however, when asked.

The Witness asked Nweze to provide a copy of the minutes from the meeting of which the Florida NAACP voted to oppose Amendment 2. Confirming later by e-mail that the minutes could not be released, Nweze failed to reply to a follow-up request seeking the exact date of the action, the wording of the motion, and whether it was a unanimous or a divided vote.

“We voted to oppose Amendment 2. ... [W]e do not support any attempt to write discrimination into our state constitution,” Nweze said. “We oppose any legislative or ballot initiative that proposes to treat people differently based on their membership in a particular group. And it’s consistent with what our organization has stood for throughout its 99 years.”

Nweze said a local chapter president of the Florida NAACP who is publically speaking in support of the amendment would be acting contrary to the official position “if they do it under the name of NAACP.”

Confusion surrounding NAACP position

There appears to be confusion within the Florida NAACP over whether it had officially gone on the record opposing the measure.

Sabu Williams, area director 1 of the Florida NAACP, told the Witness in an Sept. 18 e-mail message, “The Florida State Conference of Branches, NAACP, has not taken a position on the Marriage Amendment,” adding the group planned to hold a debate on the subject at its annual convention early this month in Fort Walton Beach. The event was postponed “due to the hurricanes,” he said, but he expects the debate will occur when the group meets in October.

“I seriously doubt if the NAACP will take an official position, but I’m sure our pastors will be intensely involved,” added Williams, a Crestview resident.

In a video message on the Vote No On 2 website, Julian Bond, who is identified as “Chairman NAACP,” says the marriage amendment “drives people apart. We feel it’s divisive. It’s harmful. It does not bring people together; so we urge Floridians to vote ‘no.‘“

In a longer version of the Bond video originally produced by anti-Amendment 2 group, Fairness for All Families, Bond notes he is a Florida property owner and part-time resident, and says, “NAACP doesn’t have any position for or against same sex marriage.” He adds, however, the organization has “opposed every constitutional attempt or amendment to create these divisions among people based on their sexual orientation.”

In a follow up Witness e-mail to Williams asking about the apparent discrepancy between his statements that the group had not and likely would not take a position on Amendment 2 and the various claims that the group has opposed the measure, Williams said only Nweze was authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.

“When I answered your question earlier I was not giving you a position for the organization rather than a statement of personal knowledge,” Williams said. “I have been known to be wrong, however, which is why we rely on one individual to speak for the organization as it relates to Florida.”

Pastor and NAACP leader weighs in

One pastor and NAACP officer who supports the NAACP position is Rudolph Bracy, pastor of New Covenant Church of Orlando.

“As a black pastor and preacher, I think that it’s a matter of whole life,” Bracy told the Witness.

Bracy, also president of the Orange County branch of the NAACP, said he believes the way Amendment 2 is worded is “not Christian.”

“I’m against the marriage amendment because of the way it has been framed and articulated for the ballot,” Bracy said.

Although Bracy said he did not support marriage between people of the same gender, he said the amendment is “punitive” and a “hoax.”

Amendment 2 supporters

Favorite in Tampa, meanwhile, said he’s still looking for answers and predicts there will be a lot of questions at the next NAACP meeting rescheduled for October. And a lot of people will want to show up and represent their view, he said.

MILLER

“It’s a very divisive issue if the NAACP has taken that kind of a position,” Favorite said.

With a 60 percent super-majority necessary to pass constitutional amendments in Florida and a large voter turnout expected among African Americans to support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the ballots of such voters may be the difference in the outcome of the marriage amendment.

A new St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll found that 58 percent support the marriage amendment, while “65 percent of black poll respondents said they would vote for Amendment 2,” the Times reported Sept. 19. The poll was also underwritten by the Miami Herald.

Maxie Miller, director of the African American Ministries Division of the Florida Baptist Convention, told the Witness that although he is a “product of the historical work of the NAACP, my position on Amendment 2 is not influenced by a political position. Rather, it is rooted on and in the sovereignty of my Lord and Savior who created me and set in order His rules and His reign for my life.”

Miller said he is voting for the marriage amendment and believes other Christians, no matter their race, should do the same.

A former member of the NAACP, Miller said he is not surprised by the opposition of Julian Bond and other NAACP leaders, but believes African American voters will be more influenced by grassroots leaders who are oftentimes pastors.

For more information about the marriage amendment, go online to www.yes2marriage.org.