Black Pastors Group: Obama’s Support for Gay Marriage ‘Might Cost Him the Election’
A group of African-American pastors say that President Barack Obama’s backing of gay marriage may cost him the election due to weakening support among black voters — although he still has overwhelming support from them.
Rev. William Owens, head of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, a group of black Christians backing traditional family values, said Obama has taken the black vote for granted.
“He has not done a smart thing and it might cost him the election,” Owens said during a press conference Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington. “There are more people that want marriage to be right than there are homosexuals.”
Although Owens declared that “we are not Democrats, we are not Republicans, this is not a political party,” Owens criticized the president for not denouncing gay marriage. He said the press conference was held to promote the group’s Mandate for Marriage, a pledge to support marriage between one man and one woman - what Owens says will be a national campaign aimed at rallying black Americans to rethink their support of the president.
