Christian leaders have banned together to launch a petition to Stand for Marriage.
The petition comes in the wake of President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriage. During a press conference in Washington, D.C., last week, the group urged pastors all over the nation to sign the Stand for Marriage document.
“We need every pastor in the nation to sign this petition,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, the senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in the D.C. area and founder and chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, which works to protect the moral compass of America and be an agent of healing to our nation. “We need President Obama to know our nation’s Christian leaders will not be silent on the issue of same-sex marriage. We will not let his endorsement go away quickly or quietly.”
The Stand for Marriage petition is the culmination of “The Defense of Marriage Summit: The Impact of Presidential Decisions on Social Institutions,” which Jackson hosted last week. During the Summit, Christian leaders prayed around the clock for traditional marriage values and engaged in dialogue about traditional family values.
In addition to the petition, Jackson is encouraging people of every ethnic background and denomination to join together to stand for righteousness and justice: “We want the people who attended this week’s Summit to take this as sort of a mandate to carry on the torch back to their communities, their churches, their families so that the ‘coalition’ will grow.”
Jackson outlined a number of efforts and initiatives the High Impact Leadership Coalition will be working toward over the next few months, including: A 40-day Righteousness and Justice fast starting June 1; encouraging 100,000 ministers to preach a message on Father’s Day about what marriage should be; and the launch of a “vote vertical campaign” beginning June 1 to address how individuals should vote values and faith, instead of race and historical politics.
Jackson believes that a new rainbow coalition is being raised up within the Christian community and that black and brown preachers could very well lead the way in redirecting the nation’s thinking from Left vs. Right back to Right vs. Wrong.
Jackson also reminded the conference attendees that in 2004 President Bush returned to office when 8 percent of black voters in Ohio and 8 to 9 percent of black voters in Florida shifted their votes because of their concerns about marriage.
Jackson believes that the Democratic Party has taken the black and Hispanic votes for granted too long. As a result, he says, they may see a backlash at the polls in 2012—not just at the presidential level, but perhaps in key senatorial and congressional races as well.
Part of the Stand for Marriage petition reads: “Marriage is intended for one man and one woman in a life-long covenant. One of the essential purposes of marriage is to carry on the human race through childbearing, another purpose of marriage is to illustrate the relationship between Christ as the Bridegroom and the church as the bride.”
Click here to sign the Stand for Marriage petition.
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