AP Associated Press
September 25, 2008

Calif. pastors push for gay marriage ban

SAN FRANCISCO - Hundreds of pastors have called on their congregations to fast and pray for passage of a ballot measure in November that would put an end to gay marriage in California.

The collective act of piety, starting Wednesday and culminating three days before the election in a revival for as many as 100,000 people at the San Diego Chargers' stadium, comes as church leaders across California put people, money and powerful words behind Proposition 8.

Some pastors around the state and nation are encouraging their flocks to forgo solid food for up to 40 days in the biblical tradition.

Jim Garlow, the pastor of the evangelical Skyline Church in San Diego County, said he expects up to 100 young adults to spend five-plus weeks on his campus, subsisting on soup, juice and the promise of societal salvation.

"This is not political to us. We see it as very spiritual," said Garlow, a leader of an interfaith coalition that has held monthly teleconferences, shared sermons and solicited donations for the ballot measure.

Thousands of same-sex couples have tied the knot in California in the three months since the nation's most populous state legalized gay marriage. Massachusetts is the only other state to allow gays to wed.

A coalition of religious leaders called California Faith for Equality has been working to persuade people of faith to oppose the ballot measure on spiritual and social justice grounds.

"Everybody understands that Jesus, in his own culture, was notorious and persecuted for consorting with outcasts," said the Rev. Peter Laarman, a United Church of Christ minister who opposes the gay marriage ban. "When Jesus said all are welcome at the table, I think he really meant all."