ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Earlier this year, President Obama became the first president in American history to openly advocate for homosexual “marriage,” explicitly reversing his position from four years ago, when, at a forum in Saddleback Church in California, he stated his support for traditional marriage, saying that it was the biblical view he held.

I, along with many others in the black community, was very disturbed. I wish I could say I was shocked, but I never believed his word at Saddleback Church. I had followed his history and record. I knew he was always pro-abortion and for homosexual “marriage,” even though the Bible is clear about the dangers of such practices. Sometimes politicians say what is convenient at a certain time, and I think that’s why he originally stated his support for traditional marriage — it may be the reason he reversed his position as well.

In 2008, the black community as a whole voted almost as a single block for Mr. Obama. Blacks also overwhelmingly approved Proposition 8 in California, which banned homosexual “marriage” in favor of natural marriage during the same election. Conservative morals and values run deep in the black community. In the current election, we need to remember those roots when we go to the polls.

In 2008, many blacks voted for skin color. They, along with millions of others in the country, were so enticed by making history and were so caught up in the “hope and change” Mr. Obama promised to bring that they pulled the lever for Mr. Obama out of euphoria instead of voting according to their values and morals.

This time, in 2012, I beg my brothers and sisters in the black community to look past color and vote for God’s values, not those of a particular political party.

I was in an African-American church in Virginia earlier this month, and afterward many people came up to me with tears in their eyes. Regarding the 2008 election, they said, “I just didn’t know what to do; I just didn’t know. But now you say there are other people on the ballot, like state and local levels. There are referendums and constitutional issues. If I can’t vote for any candidate in the presidential slot, at least I can write someone in.”

Don’t ever say I’m going to vote for the lesser of two evils. No, we can’t think that way. We are not voting for evil. We are voting for the best candidates possible.

Early on in Mr. Obama’s campaign, people came to find out that I opposed his agenda, and I took criticism from friends and family and even other pastors. They thought the black community would be influential in the Obama administration. Besides, we all would be praying for him. While I don’t doubt the power of prayer, Mr. Obama has done very little, if anything, to help the black community. In fact, he has turned his back on the very values that are the moral backbone of the black community.

The damage to natural marriage and family that he is attempting to inflict is going to be devastating to black Americans. We are all concerned about the economy right now. When natural marriage is destroyed, the doors are flung wide open to divorce, a costly venture that I know about firsthand. The suffering children experience is amplified as they lose their fathers. Society suffers financially from these behaviors that go against God’s law. If we want our lives to be blessed and our pocketbooks to be blessed, we must vote God’s values.

Blacks have a voice, and we must use it. We must vote for natural marriage and against anything that threatens this sacred union. We have to vote God’s way. If we do that, God will bless us and guide us.

Alveda King is a founder of GodSaid.org and director of African-American Outreach at Priests for Life.

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