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Several hundred attend Arlington “Not On My Watch Rally”; oppose homosexual “marriage.”
ARLINGTON?Several hundred black Christians gathered on the steps of Arlington city hall on Saturday to show their opposition to “gay marriages” in this country and to protest the comparisons between the so-called gay rights movement to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Rally organizers also encouraged support for the Federal Marriage Amendment before Congress.
The rally attracted people from all across the Dallas–Fort Worth area and beyond?one Houston man was there to show his support. Two representatives from Promise Keepers traveled from Colorado to attend.
Leaders of the “Not On My Watch Rally” compared their mission to that of a story in Ezekiel 3, where God made Ezekiel the watchman for the people of Israel, to sound the alarm of coming judgment. It was his responsibility to take the message to the people.
“May God’s recording angels of eternity record that on this date, May 22, 2004, some watchmen stood and declared God’s desire to bless the obedient and God’s warning of judgment on the disobedient,” said Howard Caver, one of the three founders of the Not On My Watch Coalition.
Caver said the three founders began meeting about six weeks ago and sharing that they and some of their congregation were concerned about the direction of the country and the push for same-sex marriage. Terrance Autrey, a Dallas-area pastor and Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church and president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Pastors’ Conference, were the other two pastors involved from the beginning. They believed the alarm had to be sounded.
Caver said this rally was that alarm.
Six different pastors and leaders?from different denominations?took the stage to explain the group’s reasoning for opposing homosexual marriage.
Bryan Carter, pastor of Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, gave a biblical response to the movement, saying that God is “pro-family.”
“Marriage was defined to be a relationship, a lifelong relationship, between a man and a woman,” Carter said. “It is a lifelong relationship between a man, a woman and God.” He said that it was God who created marriage, it was not an idea created in the minds of men.
Carter read the Genesis 1 account of God creating man (both male and female), giving them dominion over the earth and telling them to be fruitful and multiply. He told about God creating woman to be a suitable helper for man, about how a man should leave his mother and father and should become one flesh with his wife.
While the attendees shouted, “Amen” and clapped, Carter shared the analogy about the church
