NEWS STORY: Gay Marriage Issue Could Tip Some Black Votes to Bush

c. 2004 Religion News Service PHILADELPHIA _ Four years ago, President Bush wouldn’t have found many friends here in the pews of Mount Airy Church of God in Christ. Now, a growing number of churchgoing African-Americans are giving his candidacy a second thought and will be crucial votes in battleground states like Pennsylvania as Bush […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

PHILADELPHIA _ Four years ago, President Bush wouldn’t have found many friends here in the pews of Mount Airy Church of God in Christ.

Now, a growing number of churchgoing African-Americans are giving his candidacy a second thought and will be crucial votes in battleground states like Pennsylvania as Bush tries to win re-election.


The Republican president finds himself in the unlikely position of winning more black votes because African-Americans oppose same-sex marriage proportionally more than most Americans. Bush wants to ban it through constitutional amendment, while Democratic nominee John Kerry opposes such an amendment.

“Same-sex marriage goes against everything that the Bible teaches,” said Vicki Britt, a longtime Democratic voter who attends Mount Airy Church of God in Christ here. She said she is strongly considering supporting Bush in November, “even though I feel some things Bush has done are wrong. … He’s against same-sex marriage.”

The 3,000-member congregation is part of the national Church of God in Christ _ the largest black Pentecostal denomination in the country. Members of the congregation, like many black churches across America, are weighing their opposition to same-sex marriage against other social issues that typically lead to Democratic votes.

The congregation, black clergy and national pollsters said they would be surprised if Kerry gets as many votes as Al Gore did against Bush four years ago.

Current polls indicate Kerry will probably receive at least 80 percent of the black vote; Gore received 90 percent in 2000.

Bush, meanwhile, received 8 percent of the black vote in 2000 (the other 2 percent went to Ralph Nader and other candidates) and any bump could be important in so-called swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida.

Those states were decided by close margins four years ago and have large numbers of electoral votes. Polls forecast a close election this year as in 2000, and Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes _ the fifth highest total of any state, and about one-twelfth of what’s needed to win _ could be pivotal.


“The same-sex marriage issue is going to make some people think whether they’re going to switch their vote over,” said Bishop Ernest Morris, Mount Airy’s pastor. “It has been talked about in my congregation.”

Solid opposition to same-sex marriage is a reality at many black churches that decades ago helped form the backbone of the civil rights movement, which, along with social welfare issues, has prompted most African-Americans to vote Democratic for generations.

In recent months, the national 5.5 million-member Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tenn., released a proclamation against same-sex marriage and the African Methodist Episcopal Church forbade its ministers to officiate at same-sex marriages or civil unions.

In a Gallup Poll from May, 72 percent of black Americans surveyed said they opposed granting the same legal recognition for same-sex marriages as for traditional marriages. The corresponding figure for the general population was 59 percent.

Robert Franklin, former president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, an Atlanta graduate school specializing in African-American ministry, attributed this to teachings in black churches and concerns in black communities over marriage.

“The reading of Scripture (in black churches) tends to be rather strict and almost neo-fundamentalist. … They see condemnations of homosexuality in the Bible,” he said. “And all around them (black Americans) see the erosion of traditional marriages and families, two-(parent) families, and feel that their opposition to same-sex marriage represents at least drawing a line in the sand.”


The issue has emerged politically since last year’s Supreme Court decision banning anti-sodomy laws, the ensuing legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and Bush’s push for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“Although the issue of same-sex marriage hasn’t always been on the front-burner of most black clergy political activists, it is now, and the Republicans are winning that issue,” Franklin said.

Kerry has said he opposes same-sex marriage but favors allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, to grant some but not all legal rights of marriage.

Of 15 people interviewed last week at the church, all said they oppose same-sex marriage. While three of the 15 said they planned to vote for Bush because of this issue, the rest said other concerns would lead them as usual to the Democratic column.

Larry Raye, a church elder, said he feels Bush’s promotion of a constitutional amendment was a manipulative ploy to distract voters from more important issues.

“I don’t think that same-sex marriage is an election issue for us,” he said. “The issue for us is the lack of jobs in the community, and the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots. (Same-sex marriage) is a manufactured issue by the Republicans to cause polarization.”


Lee and Joe Steedley, a married Philadelphia couple and longtime church members, both said they oppose same-sex marriage. Both are registered Democrats. The issue will likely lead Joe Steedley, but not his wife, to vote for Bush, they said.

“I’d vote for Bush if Kerry’s not going to stand for basic principles that we need in this country,” Joe Steedley said, referring specifically to the amendment. “We’re not gonna accept that lifestyle.”

Lee Steedley said, “I’m more concerned about the war in Iraq. … In my family, four of my brothers were in the Vietnam War. Two got Purple Hearts.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Polls show the most important election factors to American voters are the economy and the war in Iraq _ a theme the Democrats repeatedly hammered last week during their convention in Boston.

At Mount Airy, many criticized Bush’s decision to go to war without more international support. African-Americans account for about one-eighth of the American population and about one-quarter of the Army.

“I’m against same-sex marriage,” said Charles Parrish, a 30-year-old computer analyst for the city of Philadelphia who plans to vote for Kerry, “but I also don’t support unjustified war and killing people. That’s a bigger issue than same-sex marriage.”


However, experts say the same-sex issue cannot be discounted.

If enough black opponents of same-sex marriage vote for Bush, he can win a portion of the black vote more in line with what GOP presidential hopefuls usually receive, said John Green of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics in Akron, Ohio.

“If Bush were to get 12 (percent) to 15 percent of the black vote, he would just have gotten back to where Republican presidential candidates typically are,” Green said. … There could be a few million votes more for Bush. If they’re in the right places, that could make the difference.”

DEA END DIAMANT

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