Rally for Marriage Highlights Need for Unity Among All Christians
by Allie Martin
September 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - Thousands of Christians crossed racial and denominational lines this past weekend in one Arkansas city to defend traditional marriage.
More than 4,000 people attended the "Sanctity of Marriage" rally held at Arkansas State University's Convocation Center in Jonesboro on Sunday, September 26. Speakers at the rally defended the institution of marriage, declaring that the Bible recognizes marriage only as the union of one man and one woman.
One of those speaking was Rev. Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors. Owens says Christians need to cross racial and denominational lines in order to save traditional marriage. And as a veteran of civil rights marches in the 1960s, he says Christians must realize that the debate over traditional marriage is not a civil rights issue. He maintains that homosexual activists have "hijacked" the movement that he marched for decades ago."I marched in the marches, and I took whatever it took to stand with Dr. [Martin Luther] King -- and they have tried to hijack the civil rights movement," the pastor says. "It is not a civil rights issue; it is a moral issue."
Because it is an issue of morality, Owens says he was encouraged at the participation of large numbers of black and white churches for the Arkansas event.
"This fight that we have is so big -- and we have so many enemies and so many people [in political office] who are not standing up for it -- we need to do more rallies," he says. "We wanted to test this rally as a model, and people came from as far as Memphis and Tupelo, Mississippi, to participate in that rally.
"So we must go forward and join our forces because we cannot be divided and expect to win on this issue. We must be united together."
Additional rallies in support of traditional marriage are planned for St. Louis and Oklahoma later this year. Owens encourages concerned Christians to organize similar rallies in their areas of the country.
