The Rev. Al Sharpton was among the
prominent African-American pastors on Friday announcing their support
for gay marriage.
The coalition, led by the Rev. Delman
Coates, senior pastor of the Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton,
Maryland, announced its support during a press conference at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“This is not an issue about gay or
straight, this is an issue about civil rights and to take a position
to limit the civil rights of any one is to take a position to limit
the civil rights of everyone,” Sharpton, president of National
Action Network, told reporters.
“This is a policy debate … and we
cannot be part-time civil-rights advocates. Those who disagree on a
theological level, we should have that debate in our churches, in our
houses of worship, in our seminaries. We should not legislate to say
that we win the argument by forcing others to do what we want. Tyranny
by the majority is anti-democratic. It's anti civil rights.”
Coates echoed a similar sentiment,
saying marriage equality is primarily a public policy issue, not a
religious one.
“As African-American Christian
pastors and leaders, we cannot stand on the side of those who attempt
to justify legalized discrimination under the guise of religious
belief,” Coates said.
The coalition said it wanted to dispel
the myth that all African-American ministers are against marriage
equality, but opponents in Maryland, one of four states where the
issue will be on the ballot in November, said the pastors had “gone
renegade.”
“I think many in the Baptist faith
and even in the community would say, 'Well, he's gone renegade with
the belief system on this issue,'” Derek McCoy, executive director
of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, told NBC affiliate WBAL. “And I
don't think he holds a lot of clout.”
(Related: Derek
McCoy: God put us here to oppose gay marriage.)