Pope Francis I wades into gay marriage row.

Pope Francis I wades into gay marriage row.(HD).

Pope Francis waded today diplomatically into the gay marriage debate, telling the Archbishop of Canterbury he wants to work together to promote family values “based on marriage.”

Francis, who vigorously opposed gay marriage in his native Argentina, and Archbishop Justin Welby chatted, prayed and had lunch together at the Vatican in their first encounter since both were installed in March.

Welby, the spiritual leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, has opposed legislation in Britain that would legalize gay marriage, saying it would undermine family life. He appeared last week before the House of Lords before it moved the gay marriage bill a step closer to becoming law. The legislation would enable gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales.

In his remarks to Welby, Francis said he hoped they could collaborate in promoting the sacredness of life “and the stability of families founded on marriage.” He noted that Welby had spoken out on the issue, a reference to his House of Lords testimony.

Significantly, though, Francis didn’t say that marriage should be based on a union between a man and woman, which is how Benedict XVI and John Paul II routinely defined marriage.

Hmmm...I thought Jesuits are supposed to know the Bible.....1 Corinthians 7:2 "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband."Read the full story here.

Black pastors group launches anti-Obama campaign around gay marriage, claim there were 3,742 African-American pastors on board.

Black pastors group launches anti-Obama campaign around gay marriage, claim there were 3,742 African-American pastors on board.(CNN).By Dan Merica.A group of conservative black pastors are responding to President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage with what they say will be a national campaign aimed at rallying black Americans to rethink their overwhelming support of the President, though the group’s leader is offering few specifics about the effort. The Rev. Williams Owens, who is president and founder of the Coalition of African-Americans Pastors and the leader of the campaign, has highlighted opposition to same-sex marriage among African-Americans. He calls this campaign “an effort to save the family.” 

“The time has come for a broad-based assault against the powers that be that want to change our culture to one of men marrying men and women marrying women,” said Owens, in an interview Tuesday after the launch event at the National Press Club.

“I am ashamed that the first black president chose this road, a disgraceful road.” At the press conference, Owens was joined by five other black regional pastors and said there were 3,742 African-American pastors on board for the anti-Obama campaign. When asked at the press conference for specifics about the campaign – funding, planned events and goals – Owens said only that the group’s first fundraiser will be on August 16 in Memphis, Tennessee. But Owens insisted that “we are going to go nationwide with our agenda just like the president has gone to Hollywood.” At the Tuesday press conference, Owens questioned Obama’s commitment to black Americans, stating that the president is just “half-black, half-white” and has long “ignored the black press.” He is “ignoring the people that put him in the White House,” Owens said.Read the full story here.

Pastors to Obama: "You've broken our hearts - MLK would oppose gay marriage"

Pastors to Obama: "You've broken our hearts - MLK would oppose gay marriage".(WE).The Coalition of African American Pastors wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama to request a meeting with the president, as they argued that he is wrong to support gay marriage.
"Let us speak with you and President Barack Obama about the issue of same sex marriage," the Rev. William Owens, founder of CAAP, said in the letter. "If President Obama changed his mind, let him consider changing it again."
Owens added that "President Obama is the fulfillment of our dreams for our sons--and he has broken our hearts by using his power and position to endorse as a civil right something that is simply wrong."

He argued that Martin Luther King would oppose gay marriage. Here is the quotation from King's Letter from Birmingham Jail that Owens cited, in which King denounced Jim Crow laws and articulated his understanding of civil rights:

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made
code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.

Owens asked Holder and Obama to show "residual respect" for the black pastors who supported King and now oppose gay marriage by meeting with CAAP officials.
Gay marriage is broadly-opposed in the black community, which Democrats rely upon in every election to support their party overwhelmingly. "If black voter participation can be diminished even by ten percent it will make that critical difference all across the country," Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., told a group of black pastors earlier this week.Hmmm...."And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse" ~ Genesis 12:3.Read the full story here.

Women Voters Fleeing Obama for Romney, despite, or because of, Obama’s favoring gay marriages

Women Voters Fleeing Obama for Romney, despite, or because of, Obama’s favoring gay marriages.(INN).A startling turnaround in pre-election polls show President Barack Obama losing the women’s vote to Mitt Romney despite, or because of, Obama’s favoring gay marriages. A CBS/New York Times poll gives Romney, the unofficial but de facto Republic candidate, a 46 to 44 per cent lead among women’s voters, a dramatic eight-point turnaround from a month ago. Romney’s new strength among women follow Democratic party charges that the Republican party has declared a “war on women.” The same poll also revealed that two-thirds of the respondents think President Obama’s announcement that he supports gay marriage was made “mostly for political reasons,” while only 24 percent believe the president took his stand on principle.President Obama has hedged his bets, declining to say if he would urge the repeal of a 1996 law that defines a legal marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He offered his opinion that the law is not constitutional.Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh accused mainstream media of burying the results of the poll on women voters. “For some reason, neither The New York Times nor CBS News seems to have noticed, the breakdown of the women's vote in their poll. They're not reporting it. They're burying it. I haven't seen it mentioned. Not even over at PMSNBC [MSNBC] are they talking about this. “They're not interested in how Obama's faring with women, it just isn't newsworthy anymore because he's losing…. And these people live and die by these polls.... They use these polls to influence public opinion, not reflect it, and that means that all this is a double whammy. “For two months or longer now – time is flying by – this War on Women was designed to get every woman in America hating Republicans and hating Romney, loving Obama. Obama is the guy who's gonna protect their birth control pills, gonna protect their right to abortion, gonna protect them against these predatory men, which is every man…. “And then they go out and do a poll to see how successfully they have shaped opinion, they find out they failed. So it makes sense that they don't report it.”Read the full story here.

Kenyan muslim clerics fault Obama on gay marriage.

Kenyan muslim clerics fault Obama on gay marriage.(Nation).Kenyan Muslim leaders from the coast region have condemned President Barack Obama’s support of same sex marriages. Speaking to the Nation in Mombasa, Council of Imams and Preachers Organising Secretary Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa accused President Obama of playing god by legalizing what "God Himself objects". “Simply because he has risen to be the President of a super power does not mean he can now start acting as God. He is nothing in the eyes of God and his plans will not succeed just like those who preceded him in such plans,” said Sheikh Khalifa. He further accused the Kenya Human Rights Commission of propagating western values at the expense of religion by propagating for same sex marriages and abortion. “God created man and woman so that we can procreate. How come we now want to behave worse than dogs who do not go for their own gender but know the difference between the two?” asked Sheikh Khalifa.Hmmmm........Hellooooo: Obama:“We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”Read the full story here.

House reinforcing the Defense of Marriage Act, strikes back on gay marriage.

House reinforcing the Defense of Marriage Act, strikes back on gay marriage.(Politico).By Seung Min Kim.Just hours after President Barack Obama publicly backed gay marriage, the House struck back and passed a measure aimed at reinforcing the Defense of Marriage Act. With a 245-171 vote, the House voted to stop the Justice Department from using taxpayer funds to actively oppose DOMA — the Clinton-era law defining marriage as between a man and a woman that the Obama administration stopped enforcing in February 2011. “It is not President Obama’s prerogative to decide which laws matter and which do not, nor his right to challenge constitutional amendments duly passed by the various states,” said the measure’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.). “The Justice Department is duty-bound to enforce DOMA and to not do so is a flagrant disregard for the Constitution and for the rule of law.” Huelskamp’s amendment was attached to a $51.1 billion spending bill that would fund DOJ and the Commerce Department, and major science agencies. Sixteen Democrats voted with the GOP for the amendment, while seven Republicans opposed it. Hmmm........Obama Blames “Founding Fathers” For Making It Difficult For Him To “Bring Change”But..."I will keep plotting"Read the full story here.

Obama Says He Supports Gay Marriage.

President Obama completed his “evolution” today on gay marriage, announcing that he supports same-sex unions. Obama spoke to ABC News during an interview this afternoon that had been hastily arranged this week after Vice President Biden expressed support for gay marriage Sunday and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Monday received a shellacking from reporters who had finally become incredulous over Obama’s position that he opposed gay marriage but his views were “evolving.”Hmmmm......Anything for a vote.Read the full story here.