Illinois state Rep. Greg Harris
Some African-American clergy and conservative Catholics say they’ll ban Illinois lawmakers who vote for same-sex marriage from their churches, according to CapitolFax.com.
About two dozen priests and pastors joined the Catholic Conference of Illinois to form a new anti-gay religious coalition that plans to visit 75 churches tomorrow and urge their members to lobby lawmakers to oppose same-sex marriage. They also plan to purchase billboards, TV and radio ads condemning marriage equality.
A bill to legalize same-sex marriage passed the state’s Senate on Feb. 14 and is currently before the Illinois House, which could vote on it any day.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to sign the bill into law if it’s enacted by lawmakers.
But although support for same-sex marriage is on the rise in Illinois and across the nation, right-wing religious leaders continue to vehemently oppose it as an assault on what they call “traditional marriage.”
“We want to make sure that we a send a message to our elected officials that as a collective community and a collaborative, we will not allow you to speak in our churches, you will not be invited to our church when you’re running for office because we as a community are incensed," said marriage equality opponent Bishop Lance Davis, the senior pastor of a church in Dolton. He’s part of the new anti-gay religious coalition.
Another group of religious leaders has endorsed the bill.
Illinois adopted a civil unions bill two years ago, but Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said the state of people in civil unions is often misunderstood. He said that full marriage equality is needed “because we need to treat all Illinois families equally under the law.”
