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WH getting blowback from African-American churches over gay-marriage stance
Hot Air.com ^ | May 14, 2012 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 05/14/2012 11:18:05 AM PDT by Kaslin

Barney Frank told the panel on ABC’s This Week that “I don’t think anyone’s vote was changed” when Barack Obama endorsed the legalization of same-sex marriage — but that might be too optimistic an analysis. The New York Times reports that the White House went on a charm offensive with leaders of faith organizations, including and perhaps especially African-American churches where opposition to gay marriage runs high. So far, the charm offensive has had mixed results:

About two hours after declaring his support for same-sex marriage last week, President Obama gathered eight or so African-American ministers on a conference call to explain himself. He had struggled with the decision, he said, but had come to believe it was the right one.

The ministers, though, were not all as enthusiastic. A vocal few made it clear that the president’s stand on gay marriage might make it difficult for them to support his re-election. …

In the end, Mr. Coates, who supports civil marriages for gay men and lesbians, said that most of the pastors, regardless of their views on this issue, agreed to “work aggressively” on behalf of the president’s campaign. But not everyone. “Gay marriage is contrary to their understanding of Scripture,” Mr. Coates said. “There are people who are really wrestling with this.”

This was the danger of going on the record, a danger Obama’s allies on the Left apparently discounted. Obama drove turnout in 2008 in part through the enthusiastic participation of these very same churches. Having now sided with the people who call these black pastors and congregations “bigots,” especially in North Carolina where two-thirds of black voters supported Amendment One, Obama is not at risk of having them flip to Mitt Romney — but he does risk losing that enthusiasm, fundraising, and organization.

It’s not just about the policy itself, either. The churches now wonder whether Obama will back efforts to force churches to perform same-sex marriages, a topic which one religious leader broached with the President during one of the calls:

“Some of the faith communities are going to be afraid that this is an attack against religious liberty,” Mr. Hunter remembered telling the president.

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Obama insisted. “That’s not where we’re going, and that’s not what I want.”

Really? The Obama administration’s track record on religious freedom singularly argues otherwise. Most recently, the White House stabbed their allies in health-care reform in the Catholic Church in the back by using the ObamaCare law that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops supported to create a mandate that requires church organizations to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients. Even more to the point, the Obama administration tried to apply the ADA to force a church to rehire a minister they’d terminated, an attempt that got a 9-0 rebuke from the Supreme Court.

The only time this President is solicitous of religious freedom and principles is when he’s trying to cover his own rear end.

On the other hand, Obama’s declaration has resulted in a lot of enthusiasm at churches … for Romney, as Andrew Malcolm explains:

Near the end of the competitive part of the recent Republican presidential primary season, Gov. Mitt Romney began showing growing support among evangelical voters. The Mormon had been losing that influential portion of the GOP base by lopsided proportions. Not anymore.

Thank you, Barack Obama. …

In a major examination of evangelical support for Romney the Deseret News Sunday quoted several Southern academics. Dave Woodard of Clemson University called Obama’s carefully-staged statement a gift for Romney highlighting his candidacy’s uniqueness in supporting traditional marriage.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s sealed the deal,” with most evangelical voters, Woodard told the paper. “I think he can make up for any other problems he has with them with just this one issue.”

Woodard added: “There is beginning to be some genuine enthusiasm for Mitt Romney. They’re not just going to talk about his Sunday morning activities. He has the convictions on the issues they like.”

Newsweek may have crowned Obama with a secular halo this weekend, but he’s not getting hosannas from the churches — and that might be all it takes to send Obama into retirement in January 2013.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; africanamericans; bhohomosexualagenda; blackchurch; democrats; gaymarriage; homosexualagenda; kenyanbornmuzzie; moralabsolutes; nobama2012; obama; obamatruthfile; pastors; samesexmarriage; swrdswllwngsdshw
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To: Doc Savage

Really? Not a single black in this country who’ll vote GOP? Your hyperbole insults the many good conservative blacks there are in the ranks of the GOP - or are you saying they are figments of my imagination?


21 posted on 05/14/2012 11:56:25 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: Kaslin

What will kill turnout for Obama is a campaign that implies that anyone who votes for Obama is gay.


22 posted on 05/14/2012 11:56:25 AM PDT by HerrBlucher
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To: SpinnerWebb

I think that must be left a mystery... or it just ain’t sexy. ;>)


23 posted on 05/14/2012 11:57:49 AM PDT by Gator113 (***YOU GAVE it to Obama. I would have voted for NEWT.~Just livin' life, my way~)
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To: yoe

[ The Holy Bond of Matrimony is between a male and a female...there are reasons for this health wise. Like obesity, aberrant sexual behavior has consequences. ]

So do you want the state controling what you put on your fork?

Not sure where you are going here... Please Clarify.


24 posted on 05/14/2012 11:59:06 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: Doc Savage
Nice try Barry! There isn’t a single black in this country who’ll vote GOP, so it doesn’t matter what the hell this marxist faggot does, he’s black, they’re black. End of story! Race riots at 11.

You might want to rethink that statement. I know a lot of people that would contradict your way of thinking.

25 posted on 05/14/2012 12:01:17 PM PDT by mplsconservative (Impeach Obama Now!)
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To: Kaslin

"Hi, now that you're disaffected with Obama's gay marriage stance, how bout registering as Republican?"

26 posted on 05/14/2012 12:03:45 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Kaslin

The only benefit to Obama from his ‘coming out’ in support of same-sex ‘marriage’ was to get more money from gays and gay marriage advocates but they were going to vote for him, anyway. Some black voters may have less enthusiasm to work for Obama’s re-election and it’s likely that some blacks will decide to abstain from voting as a way of benignly opposing Obama’s gay marriage stand but not going so far as to vote for the rich white guy. That could tip the scales toward Romney in some places but not in N.Y. or California where the preponderance of liberals offsets the minority vote. In states that have a tight race - which I don’t foresee - that absence of the black vote might doom Obama. Let’s hope so.


27 posted on 05/14/2012 12:07:47 PM PDT by Jim Scott
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To: Kaslin
Would Trayvon Martin support Gay marriage?????
28 posted on 05/14/2012 12:11:13 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Greed + Envy = Liberalism)
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To: Jonty30

Not necessarily. With real Christians, God comes first and foremost. Obama would come only after God and His word.

Of course, that’s not to say that most blacks in churches these days ARE ‘real Christians’. Just look at the ones that attended Rev. Wright’s hate spews.

Look for black pastors to be ‘schooled’ by the Obama administration as to how to spin and promote gay marriage now. Indoctrination. Not just for public schools and colleges any more.


29 posted on 05/14/2012 12:13:28 PM PDT by XenaLee (The only good commie is a dead commie.)
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To: Doc Savage

There isn’t a single black in this country who’ll vote GOP,


Uh, you didn’t think that one out.


30 posted on 05/14/2012 12:13:35 PM PDT by unkus (Silence Is Consent)
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To: rdb3

yes you exist...........and thank you.


31 posted on 05/14/2012 12:16:18 PM PDT by tankrlm
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To: Jim Scott
I'm praying that that will indeed happen, Jim. Good to see you, btw.

"In states that have a tight race - which I don’t foresee - that absence of the black vote might doom Obama."

32 posted on 05/14/2012 12:16:18 PM PDT by XenaLee (The only good commie is a dead commie.)
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To: yoe

Here is a list of what many doctors refer to as “Lavender” diseases. They occur with extraordinary frequency among male homosexuals.

Anal Cancer
Chlamydia trachomatis
Cryptosporidium
Giardia lamblia
Herpes simplex virus
Human immunodeficiency virus
Human papilloma virus
Isospora belli
Microsporidia
Gonorrhea
Viral hepatitis types B & C
Syphilis


33 posted on 05/14/2012 12:16:40 PM PDT by skimask
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To: Doc Savage
There isn’t a single black in this country who’ll vote GOP

To say there are none would be wrong. There are quite a few. Ever heard of Allen West? Judging from your screen name, you must be a listener to Savage's show, and you know there are conservative blacks who call his show.

34 posted on 05/14/2012 12:16:48 PM PDT by eekitsagreek (got no money and you got no car, then you got no woman...and there you are!)
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To: Jonty30

Of course it’s irrelevant to black churches Obama’s stand on homo-marriage. They have enthusiastically supported him in spite of their opposition to abortion.

As someone said down-thread, “Melanin über alles.”


35 posted on 05/14/2012 12:17:45 PM PDT by Chaguito
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To: rdb3
Thank you for the beautiful music by Thao Nguyen Xanh....really need that calming sound after the sad mess Obama has gotten the nation into...he is walking all over the United States...it's pay back for him and he ain't agonna stop until he is forced to...
36 posted on 05/14/2012 12:26:04 PM PDT by yoe (Proud to be part of the Tea Party movement.....!!!!!)
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To: Gator113
......the 98% would still vote for their brudder.

How wrong you are!Obama's support in the African-American Community has plummeted to a new low of 97.99%. However, that is among living African-American voters who only vote once. The absentee ballots, and the dead are still 106% behind dere brudder!

37 posted on 05/14/2012 12:26:23 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (So, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out if Obama is a Natural Born Citizen?)
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To: GreenLanternCorps
“Ethnic solidarity will ensure a high percentage of the black vote. But they don’t have to vote for him, or put in time organizing and getting out the vote.”

Bingo! It was already going to be tougher to get high turnout the second time around because, now that Obama is President, it's no longer about “making history” by electing him. So, this gay marriage stuff is the last thing Obama needs.

Obama will get 95% of the Black vote, but I predict the Black vote will be notably lighter this time around.

38 posted on 05/14/2012 12:33:33 PM PDT by utahagen
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To: Oberon
Wait a minute... how can a preacher “support” a president’s re-election when churches are 501c-3 organizations legally prohibited from favoring political candidates, at risk of their tax-exempt status?

I believe "the church" cannot endorse a candidate but the pastor as a private citizen can endorse a candidate and make it known just as you or I would make it known who we endorse. I know a guy that's works for a politically active pastors organization that told me one time that "the IRS gives pastors a mile and they take an inch". In other words, there is a lot more they can do but live in fear of the IRS.
39 posted on 05/14/2012 12:35:46 PM PDT by copaliscrossing (Progressives are Socialists)
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To: skimask
Here is a list of what many doctors refer to as “Lavender” diseases. They occur with extraordinary frequency among male homosexuals.

Anal Cancer


You can imagine how I felt at one of our department meetings when the subject came up about changing our software to be able to handle...."Anal Pap smears"!!!

I wonder if my co-workers saw me turn white as a ghost and get a sick look on my face when I heard that.
40 posted on 05/14/2012 12:39:41 PM PDT by copaliscrossing (Progressives are Socialists)
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