Pastor Advises Marriage Defenders to Unite Across Racial Lines

by Allie Martin
July 22, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Northeast Mississippi pastor is encouraging Christians nationwide to rally for traditional marriage.

Clarence Parks is pastor of the Temple of Compassion and Deliverance in Tupelo, Mississippi. As a bishop with the Church of God in Christ, he also oversees a number of other churches in the area, and was among several clergy and pro-family leaders who took part in a Rally for Traditional Marriage in his hometown last Sunday.

Parks would like to see more Christians across the United States get involved in such events, so awareness can be raised and people motivated to defend the biblical view of marriage. He says it is imperative that pastors educate their congregations about the battle for traditional marriage, and "let them know that we're not hating people, but we're hating the sin ... and not only the Church, but God does too."

The bishop remarks on the subtlety of Satan in easing various evils gradually into societal acceptance and legal sanction, and eventually, into common practice in America. He says first the enemy "came in and took our prayer, then he brought forth abortion rights, and now he's talking about same-sex [marriage], and if he gets this then no one is safe."

Parks has been advising Christians to put aside racial strife and other divisions and to stand united in defense of God's view of marriage. He says believers of all races need to come together in the battle for marriage, because the legalization of same-sex marriage will lead to disaster for America, because any nation that allows homosexual marriage risks losing God's blessing.

The pastor feels allowing homosexuals and judicial activists to redefine marriage is a slippery slope that will lead to further and further distortion of God's true intent for marriage. "What's going to happen," Parks warns, "is it's going to permeate to the point where, if a man wants to have five wives he can, and if a man wants to have five husbands he can, and on and on. There's no stopping point, so the Church has got to stand up."

Parks adds that God often allows things to happen to bring the body of Christ together. He says he believes God may have allowed the same-sex marriage crisis to happen in order to "bring the Church world together, to wake us up so we can have a focus on heavenly things."