Coalition of black U.S. pastors to file 80 legal briefs against marriage equality

[kwassa]

16. The head of this organization has a long record on rightwingwatch.org ...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/coalition-african-american-pastors

also this:

http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201208080002

Although Owens claims his organization represents 3,742 African-American pastors, CAAP’s influence appears to be pretty limited. The organization doesn’t speak on behalf of any religious denomination, and its sole mission appears to be to attack Obama and other black leaders who support marriage equality.

As Right Wing Watch recently pointed out, CAAP’s effort to collect 100,000 signatures for its anti-marriage equality pledge had barely mustered more than a thousand signatures by May (over three times less than the number of CAAP’s members).

CAAP’s tepid support might have to do with the fact that a majority of African-American voters who are aware of Obama’s support for marriage equality actually approve of his position. Even among voters who oppose same-sex marriage, the issue isn’t a major priority, with the overwhelming majority of them continuing to support Obama despite his announcement. As The Washington Post’s Robert P. Jones wrote earlier this week, “there is simply no evidence” that Obama’s support for marriage equality “is driving a wedge between Obama and black voters.”

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NOM came under heavy criticism earlier this year after internal memos revealed that the organization had planned to “drive a wedge” between the African-American and gay communities. According to NOM’s memo:

The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots…

NOM’s “wedge” strategy has been in full swing over the past several months, with Rev. Owens serving as one of the key players in the effort to pit African-Americans against the LGBT equality movement.