Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage is the father of seven. He has eight children.

WASHINGTON — They are moms and dads, authors and activists, a former police officer and a former single mom. They’re black and white and Hispanic. One’s a Roman Catholic archbishop, another an evangelical minister. Many have large families — including gay members.

They are among the leading opponents of gay marriage, or as they prefer to be called, defenders of traditional marriage. And they’re trying to stop an increasingly popular movement as it approaches two dates with history next week at the Supreme Court.

MORE: ‘Regular’ couples at core of historic gay marriage case

At times, it can seem a lonely battle. Outspent and lately out-hustled by highly organized gay rights organizations, opponents have struggled to get their story out. They’re portrayed as bigots, likened to the racists and sexists of yesteryear. Some have been compared with hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

POLL: Young people, flip-floppers fuel surge for gay marriage

For men of the cloth such as Roman Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, nothing could be further from the truth.

“Those who believe what every human society since the beginning of the human race has believed about marriage, and is clearly the case from nature itself, will be regarded, and treated, as the next class of bigots,” he says. “That’s untrue, and it’s not kind, and it doesn’t seem to lead to a ‘live and let live’ pluralism.”

From his new post in San Francisco, a bastion of gay and lesbian activism, Cordileone chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on the defense of marriage. He’s one of the nation’s leading opponents of gay marriage and is buttressed by a diverse crowd:

At the tip of the spear is the National Organization for Marriage, led by Brian Brown, a father of eight who travels the nation speaking at rallies opposing gay marriage. He succeeded Maggie Gallagher, a renowned conservative writer and speaker who warns about “losing American civilization.”

The Family Research Council, headed by Tony Perkins, has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for “defaming gays and lesbians.” Perkins, a father of five and radio personality, authored the nation’s first “covenant marriage” bill as a Louisiana state legislator in an effort to combat no-fault divorces.

One of the nation’s leading female opponents is Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, founded in 1979 by Beverly LaHaye. Fighting gay marriage is the hardest issue for the group because it’s so “complicated and deeply personal,” she says, but adds, “We believe that we must stand for truth no matter who it offends.”

Leading a group of conservative black pastors is the Rev. William Owens of Memphis, whose eight children range from age 50 to 4 months. For him, opposing same-sex marriage is part of the battle to rebuild African-American families after decades of absentee fathers. “We already have enough problems,” he says.

New York state Sen. Rubén Díaz, one of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic opponents of gay marriage, is used to tilting at windmills. An evangelical minister who has compared abortion with the Holocaust, he was the lone Senate Democrat to oppose the gay marriage law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011.

What ties this diverse group together is a belief that legalizing more same-sex marriages will harm the family, particularly children, while encouraging homosexuality and infringing on educational and religious liberty.

Their battle will culminate Tuesday with a “March for Marriage” in the nation’s capital, the same day the Supreme Court kicks off two days of oral arguments that could change the face of marriage in America. California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage will be addressed first in a case that could affect other states as well, followed by the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s denial of government benefits to same-sex spouses.

As polls show larger and larger majorities of Americans favoring gay marriage, the opponents recognize they might be losing the battle of public opinion.

“Are we bucking the tide when it comes to cultural elites?” Brown says, before answering his own question. “Of course. We know that.”

THE FAITH LEADER

No group opposing gay marriage carries as much influence as the Catholic Bishops, and Cordileone is their point man. He’s a Baby Boomer from Southern California who takes the assignment seriously.

To Cordileone, 56, the effort combines a respect for ancient civilizations as well as an understanding of modern families. He’s aware many of his flock disagree with the church’s teachings on the issue, particularly in San Francisco, but he sees no conflict.

“My job as an archbishop is to teach the truths of our faith and the truths of the natural moral law, and whatever challenges that entails, I embrace with enthusiasm,” he says.

The modern-day version of that history lesson, Cordileone says, could be seen from his cathedral residence overlooking Lake Merritt when he served as bishop of Oakland.

“It’s very beautiful,” he recalls. “But across the lake, as the streets go from 1st Avenue to the city limits at 100th Avenue, those 100 blocks consist entirely of inner-city neighborhoods plagued by fatherlessness and all the suffering it produces: youth violence, poverty, drugs, crime, gangs, school dropout and incredibly high murder rates.

“Walk those blocks and you can see with your own eyes: a society that is careless about getting fathers and mothers together to raise their children in one loving family is causing enormous heartache.”

Ask this San Diego native if he has gay friends and the answer is, “Of course!” His views on gay marriage don’t cause heartache in those relationships, he says, because his friends know him.

Q&A: Cordileone states case against gay marriage

“It’s a lot harder to be hateful or prejudiced against a person, or group of people, that one knows personally,” he says. “When there is personal knowledge and human interaction, the barriers of prejudice and preconceived ideas come down.”

Regardless of what rulings the Supreme Court hands down, most likely in late June, Cordileone warns that the debate is not over.

“Just as Roe v. Wade did not end the conversation about abortion, so a ruling that tries to import same-sex marriage into our Constitution is not going to end the marriage debate, but intensify it,” he says. “We will have a bitterly polarized country divided on the marriage issue for years if not generations to come.”

BLACK AND HISPANIC CLERGY

In some respects, Owens and Díaz defy the common perception that African Americans and Hispanics are overwhelmingly liberal. It’s a perception these men dispute.

The 74-year-old Owens, president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, a co-sponsor of next week’s march, contends blacks always have been “conservative Christians.”

“I go from a Biblical standpoint and a social standpoint, knowing the damage that has already been done to the black family,” he says. The threat of same-sex marriage, he adds, represents “another nail in the coffin for black families.”

Once divorced himself, Owens acknowledges that legalizing gay marriage won’t directly affect him. Still, he says, “We just don’t know where it’s going.”

Díaz, an ordained minister in the Church of God who chairs the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, is bringing 25 to 30 buses with gay marriage opponents to Washington for next week’s rally. Four years ago, he assembled a crowd of 20,000 to protest New York’s burgeoning gay marriage movement.

“The Hispanic community is more conservative than what people think,” he says. “Call it whatever you want — it’s a conservative religious movement.”

Díaz says he has received death threats because of his stance against same-sex marriage, but he proudly refers to his efforts as “a calling.” Despite those efforts, the conservative Democrat says he gets along just fine with his gay brother, nephew and granddaughter.

“We have a very loving family,” he says. “I love them. They love me. We help each other. They know that this is the Bible — this is what I preach.”

THE CULTURAL WARRIORS

For a man who just turned 50 on Wednesday, Perkins has been a conservative warrior most of his adult life. The issue of gay marriage is just the latest battle.

A former Louisiana politician, police officer and TV reporter, Perkins lost a race for the U.S. Senate in 2002. He became president of the Family Research Council the following year.

In 2008, Perkins called California’s Proposition 8 more important than the presidential election. In 2010, he opposed doing away with the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, jettisoned by President Obama. Last year, a man upset by the council’s stance on gay rights issues shot an employee there before being restrained. He’s accustomed to controversy in the name of conservative causes.

As Perkins sees it, “there will be collateral damage to other freedoms” if gay marriage becomes more common. He cites recent cases involving parents who don’t want their children to learn about same-sex marriage in school and photographers who don’t want to work at same-sex weddings.

Like Perkins, Nance graduated from Liberty University, an evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Va., and has roots in religious conservatism. Like him, she bemoans federal data showing 42% of children are born to unmarried women.

And like single parents, gay couples offer only one side of the gender equation, she says.

“If this new union is to be treated in the same way as marriage, ignoring what the social data says, then you must teach it in the same manner in schools,” Nance says. “And to say that children do not need a mother and a father is simply a lie.”

Despite her beliefs, Nance — like all the other opponents — has gay friends and family. “We feel for them, and we care deeply about their well-being,” she says, yet she worries that government acceptance will boost their numbers.

“When the law rewards something through licensing or benefits, there is always increased activity,” Nance says. “We see this with marijuana in California, or gambling, prostitution, abortion or any vice that is legalized. Government endorsement lures people who would abstain otherwise.”

THE LOBBYIST

The group responsible for coordinating these and other opponents is the 6-year-old National Organization for Marriage, led originally by Gallagher and now by Brown.

Compared with the gay rights movement, the group is dwarfed. It spent just $150,000 lobbying in the past two years, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, compared with $3 million by the Human Rights Campaign and $650,000 by the group Freedom to Marry.

Even so, Brown notes, opponents helped to pass laws and voter initiatives against gay marriage in 38 states. Only nine states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage — including three states where voters approved it last fall.

“The people are definitely on our side,” Brown says. “The fight is not over. We have not lost the Supreme Court.”

Since the Family Research Council shooting, Brown’s organization has hired an armed guard in its Washington office, and hecklers are a common problem. Brown, however, says he’s not intimidated.

He says he’s been influenced by preachers of equality such as Martin Luther King Jr. and believes in “the profound worth of every human being.” But he’s had trouble maintaining past friendships with gays who don’t agree with his position on the issue.

“It’s definitely put a strain on the relationships,” he says. “Those friendships are not the same as they were before.”

Gallagher came to the issue from an unusual starting point — as a single mother of a child born out of wedlock.

“I didn’t really see why you had to be married,” she says of her college years and early adulthood. What she found was that “it’s extremely difficult to be an unwed mother, which is not news now.”

Like Brown, she remains optimistic about banning gay marriage in the states and the courts. But even in defeat, she says, the opposition will grow stronger, much like the abortion opposition after the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

“I don’t believe in inevitability,” Gallagher says. “We make the future happen, and we’re in the process of making a decision.”

Same-sex marriage is legal in many states. One day it may be legal in every state. A challenge to the local Christian church is, how shall we respond?

P-R-O-B-L-E-M-S and P-R-O-M-I-S-E-S are two acrostics that consider two possible responses and two ultimate journeys.

P-R-O-B-L-E-M-S looks at the possible journey of a church that says Yes to same-sex unions:

P – Parishioners will leave the church. The congregation will divide. Many families with young children will be among the first to go because they will want their children to believe that the Bible is still relevant. They will be followed by many seniors who believe the Bible is true and who have been the back-bone of financial support, committee membership and gifts to missions. Those who leave will be accused of being prejudiced and/or homophobic. However, most will leave because they see same-sex marriage sanctioned by the church as heresy.

R – Rejecting the Bible’s teaching about God’s design for marriage will open the door for a congregation to reject what the Bible has to say about other important issues of faith and the Gospel. One might even believe the comment I saw posted by a reader on the internet after a news story in USA TODAY. Since homosexuals are created that way by God, and since the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, it just goes to show that ‘God is not perfect.’

O – Observant young people will become confused and disillusioned about the true meaning of Christian marriage. They will show less joy and interest in church matters. They will move away from the church and absorb a more worldly view of sexuality. God’s will, God’s purpose, and God’s plan for them in marriage will be only minor themes in their life.

B – Bible study and Bible reading will become a less important discipline. The Bible will lose its authority as the supreme guide and standard for daily living and true spiritual growth. The worldly wisdom of articulate men and women and the oft mistaken notions of individuals will replace the God-given guidelines for life found in the Bible.

L – Legal problems will ensue. Church sponsored adoption agencies and caseworkers who place children with heterosexual and not homosexual couples will face charges of discrimination. The belief that a child needs a mom and a dad will be a matter of debate.

Studies show that children need the consistent and prolonged nurture of a mother and a father to have the greatest chance for psychological security, success, happiness, maturity and love later in life. By its action the church would deny the developmental importance of a child’s need for a mother and a father. The church would also be declaring that the right of a same sex couple to marry and adopt children or to conceive them through a sperm bank or surrogate is more important than the right and need of a child to grow up in a home that includes the love and care of a mom and a dad. Studies reveal that children who grow up in homes without fathers are 2 to 4 times more likely to end up in jail. The consistent presence of a father and of a mother for the first 18 – 21 years of life is optimal for a child’s development.

E – Energy and resources needed to combat other real world problems such as spiritual and physical poverty, hunger, illness, broken homes, and the support of missionaries would be less available. The ability to be Christ’s ambassador to individuals in a confused, lost and devouring culture would be diminished. Since the church would show itself quite mixed up about the basics of its own faith, the financial and volunteer support of disenchanted congregants would decrease.

M – Marriage would have to be redefined. Since there is no provision for same-sex marriage in the Bible an addendum based on this widely debated human construct would have to supplement what has served as God’s Word for 2000 years. Historically, when human ideas are brought to the level of Biblical truth they produce false teachers and off-shoot religions.

S – Support for people who struggle with same-sex attraction and who seek to leave that lifestyle would be less available. Same-sex attraction that relates to the pain of abuse, molestation as a child, deep hurt and/or anger that leads to rebellion will remain hidden and with less opportunity for resolve. For us to believe that all who claim to be homosexual are simply born that way is for us to be blind to a host of influences that relate to the environment, child abuse, emotional trauma, perverse surroundings, peer pressure, relational problems, and commercially-based media outlets that openly exploit and pervert sex to sell products without regard for the chaos and confusion they cause in the hearts and minds of children.

P-R-O-M-I-S-E-S considers the journey of the church that would say No to same-sex unions:

P – Persecution, protests, discrimination suits, and inflammatory remarks may be made against the church that says, “No” to same-sex marriage. Paul told Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Tim 3:12). Historically, churches that oppose cultural drifts that run counter to God’s Word are persecuted. In His message to the disciples on the night before He died, Jesus said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. (John 16:8)

R – Responding in love, Christians who rely on God’s Word for guidance will pray for those who persecute them. They will do all they can to understand them based on the Light of God’s Word. They will seek to educate themselves about this issue and ask God to guide them in reaching out to those who hurt and are in need of God’s love. The organization NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) describes itself as a community of psychiatrists, psychologists, certified social workers, professional and pastoral counselors, behavioral scientists and laymen from a variety of backgrounds such as law, religion, and education. They are an example of an organization that offers scientifically based articles and resources to help one better understand the complexity of homosexuality and the hope that there is to overcome it.

O – Observant youth will not be deceived into believing that God’s Word is outdated for the challenging issues of today. Jesus cares about young people. He cares about their response to Him. In the Bible, He demands respect for their budding faith. In His own words Jesus said, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. (Mark 9:42) A church that denies the truth and authenticity of God’s Word is in danger of creating roadblocks that may impede or snuff out the faith of a child.

M – Ministries to individuals who struggle with same-sex attraction and seek to leave the homosexual lifestyle would be better recognized and supported. Programs such as Exodus International, HarvestUSA, Life-Ministry of New York, HA (Homosexuals Anonymous) and others, compassionately offer hope and help to people who want to leave a homosexual lifestyle. These organizations include many professional counselors and staff who are themselves, ex-homosexuals.

I – Interest in the Biblical meaning of marriage would become a priority topic to investigate, discuss and better understand. How did marriage start? What is its purpose? What does the Bible mean when it compares the marriage of a man & a woman to the relationship of Christ and the Church?

S – Study of God’s Word will increase. Believers will want to know more about the Bible’s relevancy on other issues in the world today. As they study it, believers will find the Bible’s words to be, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

E – Examination of self would be an important discipline for members of the church that says “No.” Individuals would be encouraged to examine their own lives and recognize that none of us is perfect. We all fall short of the glory of God. The need for daily repentance related to personal thoughts, feelings, actions and inactions that diminish God’s love and the Gospel would remind members to remain humble and to not judge or condemn people who struggle with same-sex attraction.

S – Shedding light on God’s Word will allow the church to be a greater witness to the culture at large. Rather than being identified as a church that finds a way to interpret the Bible in the light of the culture, such a church would be identified as one that stands ready, willing and able to inform the culture in the Light of the Bible.

I believe that the bottom line for the church is not, Should we favor or oppose same-sex marriage? The bottom line and the question that must be answered first is, What do we think of the Bible? Is it or is it not God’s Word? Is it or is it not relevant for the world today?

How a local church answers these questions will determine almost exclusively how it will respond on the issue of same-sex marriage. Either way, what the Bible teaches about marriage appears to be without question on a fast-track collision course with cultural influences that seek to redefine it.

Passages that speak about marriage and homosexuality include: Genesis chapters 2 and 19; Romans chapter 1; First Corinthians chapters 6 and 7; and Jude. When Jesus talks about God’s design for marriage in Mark chapter 10, He refers to Genesis chapter 2.

WHAT: Coalition of African-American Pastors press conference asking President Obama to reconsider gay marriage support

WHEN: Thursday, May 17, 2012; 11:00 am CT

WHERE: 1750 Madison Avenue, Suite 260, Memphis, TN

WHO: Bishop Brandon B. Porter, Prelate, Tennessee Central Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the COGIC and Senior Pastor, Greater Community Temple
Bishop Ed Stephens, Jr., Senior Pastor, Golden Gate Cathedral in Memphis
Dr. Dwight Montgomery, Pastor, Annesdale Cherokee Baptist Church and
President, SCLC (Memphis Chapter)
Rev. William Owens, Sr., Founder and President, Coalition of African American Pastors
Bishop David Allen Hall, D.M., Jurisdictional Prelate, First Ecclesiastical Headquarters
Jurisdiction of Tennessee and Senior Pastor, Temple Church of God in Christ
Ivory Jackson, Associate Pastor, Faith Temple Church of God in Christ
Bishop Felton Smith, Prelate, Tennessee Eastern First Jurisdiction; Senior Pastor, New
Covenant Fellowship COGIC in Nashville
Elder Robert Morris, Acting Minister, New Jerusalem COGIC
Rev. Leonard Dawson, Senior Pastor, Cane Creek Baptist Church and former President, Baptist Ministerial Alliance

The Coalition of African-American Pastors is a grass-roots movement of African-American Christians who believe in traditional family values such as supporting the role of religion in American public life, protecting the lives of the unborn and defending the sacred institution of marriage.
For further information, please contact Jameson Cunningham with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920.

“The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People needs to be recalled to its founding purpose,” said Rev. William Owens, President of CAAP.  “Black people face acute and urgent needs, from unemployment to education, family fragmentation, discrimination and crime.

“We are calling on the NAACP, a beloved organization in our eyes, to reclaim its mission.  The Black church founded the NAACP, and it is not the organization for the advancement of gays and lesbians–whatever the merits of that movement.  Return to your roots and stand with the Black Church on marriage.  The Black Church in our eyes remains the conscience of America.

“To the board of NAACP we say, ‘Do not worry about the money, God will provide.’  Stand with the Church and the Bible and the natural law, as our brother with whom we marched, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., called on us to do.”

WHAT:           Press conference of black pastors to challenge NAACP’s support of same-sex marriage

WHEN:          Thursday, July 11, 2012

12:30 PM (CST)

 WHERE:        Four Seasons Hotel, Clearlake Room

1300 Lamar Street

Houston, TX

WHO:             Rev. William Owens, President and Founder, CAAP

The Coalition of African-American Pastors is a grass-roots movement of African-American Christians who believe in traditional family values such as supporting the role of religion in American public life, protecting the lives of the unborn and defending the sacred institution of marriage.

 For further information, please contact Jameson Cunningham with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920. 

I hope to inform the reader about why Black America needs to embrace conservative principles.  Being an African American, it is hard to express conservative views in public.  In spite of the fact that most black people are mostly conservative and religious we cling to a more liberal philosophy.  For too long, there is a stigma of racial insensitivity and culture bias that conservatives have endured.  Then conservatives have too often claimed the moral high ground and deny others the same privilege.  Really both sides are guilty of the same!

I want to dispel the misnomers and generalities about those who have conservative principles. I want you to know the love, and genuine commitment of conservative persons.  Conservatives are grounded in truth.  Too often, conservatives are accused of being less than progressive or compassionate to those less fortunate.  There is something dynamic and powerful about being grounded in truth.  God established the world and announced it as good and that was truth.  Satan changed the idyllic world that God created for his purposes.  Possibly, that is the original difference in conservatives and others, our philosophy and actions are grounded in godly order and the first principle: human respect.

May I speak a clarion thought to you?  Will you listen to another side of the issues that are principled but only for the purpose of holding the line, preserving status quo, a set of existing conditions, institutions or habits.  Key terms like traditional and orthodoxy are recklessly used by pseudo conservatives without good definition or intellect.

In today’s society, so much unnatural and strange behavior holds the attention. The greedy and prejudice, whether liberal or conservative block the proven and positive truth from being realized.  That which is circumspect, natural and basic looses out to ideological and political strategies.  No true conservative loves money and puts money first and then people last.  That brand of conservatism is born of selfishness and promotes personal advantage.  I admit we see too much of that daily.  That’s when liberals feel compelled to speak loudly, and bring humanism or corrupted standards as a proposed answer.

Hence, the political solution is selected over the godly and simply decent thing to do.  Bad politics tends to separate the human family of God and seek its own wellbeing.  The realities become personal and political advantage, as in arguments about differentiated taxation, racial prejudicial or demeaning social standards that demand governmental regulation, in spite of community needs.

My task is to appeal to you and purpose a correct and not the politically correct solution.  For instance, the US Constitution is a document of principles but it is over 200 years old.  The task of both liberal and conservative thinkers is to properly interpret what the Founding Fathers intended.  I know you want the truth and not a political answer.  Whether I speak about taxation, regulation, social or civil rights, you need the truth.  From this seat, my goal is to always tell you the truth!  Truth is the first principle!  Truth is a conservative principle!

Bishop David Allen Hall