Nov 12, 2004  |  By: JOE CREA  | COMMENTS     

Editors’ note: This is the third of a continuing series of articles examining similarities and differences between the African-American civil rights movement and the gay rights movement.

In the debate over marriage for same-sex couples, evangelicals typically couch their opposition to gay marriage in religious terms.

In “Eleven Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage,” Rev. James Dobson, founder of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, writes that the family “has been God’s primary vehicle for evangelism since the beginning” and if the traditional family lineup is changed, over time “that responsibility to teach the next generation will never recover from the loss of committed, God-fearing families.”

“The younger generation and those yet to come will be deprived of the Good News,” Dobson argues.

Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), chief sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment in the House, said in an August 2003 Agape Press report that religion motivates the debate over the FMA, which seeks to ban gay marriage in the U.S. Constitution.

The FMA was defeated by both House and Senate, but Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser, said Sunday that Bush will renew his call to ban same-sex marriage via constitutional amendment.

“I am a Christian and I have a Christian worldview, but I think we should be aware that all of the world’s major religions — not just Christianity, not just Judaism — define marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Musgrave said.

Earlier this year as the Massachusetts Legislature held contentious debates over a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in that state, many religious leaders — particularly black pastors — often injected religion into their arguments against marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Rev. Gregory G. Groover Sr., pastor of Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston told the Boston Globe in February, “As black preachers … our first call is to hear the voice of God in our Scriptures, and where an issue clearly contradicts our understanding of Scripture, we have to apply that understanding.”

Religion played a similar role during the African-American civil rights struggle in the 1950s and ‘60s. Both sides used religion to deny or support civil equality for blacks.

Both sides cite Bible
Despite attacks by social conservatives who often invoke the Bible to justify their opposition to gay marriage rights, a growing number of gays and progressive religious groups want to see religion become a part of the argument for marriage equality, similar to the way it was used to argue for African-American rights in the last century.

“You don’t have a choice when the other side continually invokes religion and acts as if they have a monopoly on faith. One can’t remain silent in the face of that,” said Charles Keener of the National City Christian Church/Celebration of the Spirit Coalition. “Not all people of faith believe gay marriage is against the Bible or that all communities of faith are opponents of justice for the gay community.”

During the African-American civil rights struggle, the progressives used religion as a way to advance their case for equality long before the boycotts and sit-ins.

Mandy Carter, one of the founding members of the National Black Justice Coalition, said that one of the reasons the church played such a pivotal role in the struggle for African-American equality was because it was the one place where blacks could go to have a sense of community.

“The church didn’t have control of our life, that is why — culturally and organizationally — the church played such a pivotal role,” Carter said. “That legacy has not ended.”

But the effort is complicated for gays who — unlike African Americans in the last century — are not united by one church. Many gays feel disenfranchised and don’t belong to a church at all, while others are spread through many different denominations, whereas blacks attended black churches, said Mary A. Tolbert, executive director of the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.

“The critical mass is not nearly as great as it was for black churches,” Tolbert said. “On the other hand, there is much organizing going on amongst gay members of faith but it’s ...