Reverend William Owens Sr.

William "Bill" Owens Sr. is a Conservative Christian pastor involved in theCivil Rights Movement in the 60's. Today he is a member of the infamous anti-gay hate groups Coalition of African-American Pastors,  National Organization for Marriage, and the  FRC. He is good friends with Tony Perkins and Bishop Harry Jackson Jr.

LGBT Rights Issues
Pastor Owens is opposed to gay rights and believe it will destroy the black community.

On July 31st 2012, Owens defended his anti-gay beliefs with his religion and tried to play the victim card by comparing the civil rights movement to tolerating homophobia.

'''“It’s a disgrace. It’s the same thing that happened when I was marching for civil rights, when they didn’t want a black to come into their restaurant, they didn’t want us staying in their hotels. Now they’re saying, because we take a Christian position, they don’t want us in their cities.”'''

Owens also insulted president Obama for believing in equal marriage rights.

"The President is in the White House because of the Civil Rights movement, and I was a leader in that movement.  And I didn't march one inch, one foot, one yard for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman. So the president has forgotten the price that was paid, where people died, where they suffered, where they gave their blood to have equal rights in the United States."



On October 12, 2012 he tried to pull black voters away from supporting Obama using anti-gay propaganda. While sitting down with Jamilah Lemieux of Ebony, Owens said that black voters are turning against Obama because Right Wing Watch had nearly 90 thousand hits and 85 percent of the people are on their side on the issue and also told Lemieux that “there isn’t such thing as separation as church and state.” Owens effectively admitted to Lemieux that CAAP is a single-issue organization dedicated to opposing marriage equality, insisting that marriage equality for gays and lesbians must be stopped because,

“the Black family has been destroyed by homosexuality, and it will help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else.”

'''"We're our own problem right now. We are are own problem and we need good moral leadership and I expected that from Obama. Same sex marriage is not [representative of that]...I felt that that one issue was enough to help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else." '''

In November 2012 he talked to Sandy Rios and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association for their organization’s election night special about the “unbelievable” impact if Maryland voters approve their state’s marriage equality law, which did indeed pass. He said,

"...if we change God’s law by legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption then the whole gamut of the family is going to be destroyed and all areas of the social life will be destroyed from what has been for thousands of years.” 



Courtest Of Right Wing Watch

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