Bishop Harry Jackson has warned
lawmakers in Maryland that there will be a price to pay for
supporting gay marriage.
The
Maryland House on Friday shelved a gay marriage bill already approved
by the Senate after supporters conceded the measure would fail.
Jackson, a minister at the Hope
Christian Church in Belstville, came to prominence fighting against
the District of Columbia's law, now in its second year. The Supreme
Court recently announced without comment that it would not hear
Jackson's challenge to a D.C. Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the
city's right to prohibit a referendum on the issue from going to
voters. Jackson
and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have said they will
work with Congress to strike down the law.
Jackson also played a greater role
lobbying against Maryland's effort than previously publicized.
In an interview with the Christian
Broadcasting Network, Jackson explained the role of the church in
reversing the tide.
“It took the church coming out, the
black church telling its representatives, 'Don't listen to the party
leadership. Understand that you are going to have to come back to
you own community and they see you sort of as lemmings who are
willing to just march off to your death, when ... there will be a
price to pay.'”
“We have got to remove those folks
who are willing to be anti the will of the people.”
“So, we are going to begin to
identify legislators and we are going to vote some folks out of
office. We are going to stop gay marriage in its tracks,” Jackson
added. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)