Gay marriage issue splits black church and NAACP

As I was growing up in the segregated South of the 1950s, the NAACP was an important part of my world.

I heard about it in school — many teachers and principals were members and openly advocated for students to become involved.

But it was in church that the influence of the NAACP was most pervasive. Often, pastors and other church leaders were officers in the local branch, and the NAACP was considered, in effect, an arm of the ministry of the church.

Now, however, with the organization’s decision to support same-sex marriage, it appears that the black church is no longer welcome in the NAACP.

Claiming that “marriage equality” is a civil right, the NAACP board voted 62-2 to back that policy. In doing so, the NAACP decisively cut itself off from its roots in the black church.

What these NAACP leaders fail to grasp is that, for most members of the black church, it’s neither an emotional thing nor an issue of personal preference. It’s an issue of biblical authority.

For Bible-believing Christians, such statements of Scripture are decisive for our attitude toward homosexual relationships.

We will never “evolve” to a stance of approval. For that reason, the black church as a whole will never follow where the NAACP is attempting to lead us.

In effect, the NAACP has demanded of the black church: You must choose between us and God. I believe most of us will say with the apostle Peter, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

The church may be the only potential refuge from gay marriage. If nothing is done in the form of a Federal Constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage, it is going to happen, sooner or later.

Equal protection jurisprudence + the right parties + the right facts will lead to a 5-4 SCOTUS decision declaring that any state law infringement on the right of same sex couples to access legal marriage is a a violation of the equal protection clause. Boom, it's done.

I see a lot of people congratulating themselves for actions taken at the state level (state laws, state constitutional amendments) but they don't seem to understand that none of it matters if the pro gay marriage movement wins in the SCOTUS. And, as much as I hate to acknowledge it, they will win in the absence of a 28th Amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting gay marriage.

Gov. Romney has mentioned in the debates that he favors such an amendment, but they take a lot of time and effort, and there may not be much time before the right case in the right posture gets to the SCOTUS. If it reaches the SCOTUS before an amendment can be passed and/or ratified, of if an amendment is never ratified and we have to live with same sex marriages in a civil/secular world, then I think the only answer is to move to a model of marriage like the Mormon church, where it is the exclusive sealing process within the church that signifies marriage, not the document handed out at the local courthouse.

If each church were to elevate the marriage process to something on that order, you retain the ability to keep marriage between one man and one woman, regardless of equal protection doctrines, because the SCOTUS will never allow the first amendment free exercise clause to be violated by some state law (CA would be first, I would guess) mandating that a church perform same sex marriages.

Like the controversy over the Boy Scouts and their rules prohibiting gay scout leaders, I think you see the solution to encroachment by the same-sex advocates in taking more functions (day care, scouting-like programs, private schools, etc., etc., etc.) within the First Amendment protected province of the church. It's the safe harbor, in the absence of a 28th amendment, it should be exploited.

Claiming that “marriage equality” is a civil right, the NAACP board voted 62-2 to back that policy. In doing so, the NAACP decisively cut itself off from its roots in the black church.

Ultimately, this, too, will become part of zero's legacy of failure. And, with this schism between black churches and the NAACP, perhaps (not likely) black Americans will understand the depth of zero's duplicitous deception and betrayal of ALL black Americans. Maybe, just maybe, this will wake them up.

The gamble was that the NAACP could lead black churches in a certain direction. For any minister to examine the direction, then realize that everything he’d spoken about for forty years was to be tossed...the minister would just laugh for a moment, and say good-bye to the relationship with the NAACP.

My humble guess is that the election will demonstrate that this direction change for the NAACP was a major screw-up. What I see developing by 2016...is that the black churches take up their own organization to replace the NAACP. It won’t be leaning either the Republicans or the Democrats, but will focus on a real lack of leadership in the black community, getting people to ask questions, and focus on a constructive future for their membership.

This intentional direction change for the NAACP...will be remembered for decades as a negative thing.

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