The pastor explained that government has always recognized marriages in order to “look out for the best interest of the child.” Studies clearly show that a family with a mother and a father “is the best place for kids to be raised,” he noted.
McCoy also said that the effort to redefine marriage “does not compare to civil rights.”
He dismissed attempts to compare people who reject “gay marriage” to those who oppose interracial marriage.
“That’s not the same issue at all,” he said, reflecting that racial differences are irrelevant to marriage, but sexual complementarity is at the heart of marriage by its very nature.
“The core essence of a marriage is the two sexes coming together,” he said.
Other African American leaders have also criticized the NAACP’s endorsement of “gay marriage” in recent days.
Dr. Alveda C. King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that neither her grandfather nor her uncle “embraced the homosexual agenda that the current NAACP is attempting to label as a civil rights agenda.”
“We who marched with Rev. King did not march one inch or one mile to promote same-sex marriage,” agreed Rev. William Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors.
He explained that redefining marriage is counter to Dr. King’s work because it is a political attempt to “declare that an act contrary to God's law and to the natural law is a civil right.”
“We call on all Americans to respect the legitimate civil rights of gay people to be free from violence, harassment, to vote, to hold jobs,” Owens said. “But none of us has a moral or civil right to redefine marriage.”
Michelle La Rosa is deputy editor-in-chief of Catholic News Agency. She has worked for CNA since 2011. She studied political philosophy and journalism at the University of Dallas.