Bill Owens, Harry Jackson Orgs Received Thousands From Gay Marriage Foe NOM

Organizations run by the Rev. Bill Owens and Bishop Harry Jackson have received thousands of dollars in donations from gay marriage foe the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) education fund.

Owens heads the nascent Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP), which attracted major headlines in July for criticizing President Barack Obama's endorsement of gay marriage.

Similarly, Jackson, head of Hope Christian Church in Maryland, has strongly opposed efforts to legalize such unions in Washington D.C. and Maryland.

In a blog post, Equality Matters' Carlos Maza noted that Owens and his coalition of African-American pastors, Jackson included, are “key players in the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) race-baiting strategy” and called CAAP “a NOM front group.”

“CAAP is little more than a front group for NOM, which has an interest in driving the media narrative that being African-American is somehow incompatible with supporting marriage equality,” Maza wrote.

NOM's race strategy to defeat gay marriage was revealed earlier this year when gay rights advocate the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) posted four of NOM's internal strategic memos from 2009. The memos caused an uproar for declaring that the “strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key democratic constituencies.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, Owens said he receives no compensation from NOM.

NOM documents show that Owens' Education for All received $35,733 and Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition received $20,000 from NOM's educational fund.

Education for All is headed by Mr. Owens' wife Dr. Deborah Owens but Mr. Owens is listed as the group's contact. A press release for the group states that it is an outgrowth of Mr. Owens' Give Me A Chance Ministry.

A Mother Jones Jackson profile added that Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition spent $40,700 trying to defeat marriage equality in DC and describes itself as a nonprofit on its website but is not listed in current IRS or charity databases.
Hey Bill and Harry..."The want of money is the root of all evil"  and just so ya know:
 " In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814

Oh and this little treasure:

 "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

Stuff that up your sanctimonious asses.