Thursday, August 19, 2010

US conservative Christians fear for rights

WASHINGTON – Conservative Christians say they are not intimidated by the advances that same-sex marriage advocates have been making in the US.

In fact, they believe they're getting up stronger and that now is not the time to give up.

"With every so-called defeat, more people come forward and say 'Enough is enough. We need to stand up for the marriage,'" said Brian Brown, president of the National Organisation for Marriage, during a rally Sunday.

NOM just completed its "Summer for Marriage" bus tour and made its last stop in front of the US Capitol. Brown visited 23 cities in 19 states proclaiming the message that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

He was met with hundreds of the protesters, many of whom attempted to shout him down and disrupt the NOM rallies.

"I will say this: Let us meet any form of hatred here today with love because we know where we come from, we know who we are and we know what this fight is about," he said Sunday in front of over a hundred supporters and dozens of the protesters.

"It is about a profound love and respect for an institution that the government did not create; an institution that predates churches, governments ...; an institution that brings together the two great halves of the humanity – male and female."

Brown approached the crowd on Sunday with the same language that he believes gay rights advocates have been misusing.

"I believe that this fight is the beginning of a new civil rights movement, and I don't say that in any shallow way," he said.

He explained to The Christian Post in an interview ahead of the rally that “a lot of African-American leaders … are tired of their struggle being hijacked by those who are attempting to use the civil rights movement to redefine marriage”.

Pushing back against comparisons between laws banning interracial marriage and ones that prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying, Brown contended, “Marriage is not based upon race. It's based upon the fact that there are men and women and men and women are brought together in marriage. So trying to compare same-sex marriage to overturning laws against interracial marriage is comparing apples to oranges.”

Brown said they are not fighting the marriage battle with Scripture, but with reason and the Constitution.

“Unaided reason alone tells us that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. We can understand by reason that marriage is that institution that brings men and women together and connects them with any children they may bear. No other relationship can do what marriage does. Our stand is based on the Constitution and is based on defending civil rights – our civil rights.”

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