“Obama laid down the gauntlet on black leaders,” Jackson said. “The question we are being forced to address is ‘are you going to be black or be godly.'”

An influential African-American evangelical pastor says that many black Christians are in an “adulterous” relationship with President Obama over the issue of same-sex marriage and that if the issue is not addressed soon, it will negatively impact the president’s desire for a second term in November.

Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. and other community group leaders gathered in WAshington, D.C. Wednesdrday to announce the launch of the grassroots group, E Plubribus Unum. The group plans to rally minorities around conservative ideas during the 2012 election season.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., who is the senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Baltimore, Md., and one of the nation’s most outspoken black pastors, maintains that Obama has drawn a hard line on major theological issues such as same-sex marriage and expects black Christians to compromise their beliefs.

“Obama laid down the gauntlet on black leaders,” Jackson said. “The question we are being forced to address is ‘are you going to be black or be godly.'”

And Jackson is not alone in his sentiments.

On Thursday, a group of black ministers calling themselves the Coalition of African-American Pastors, many of whom represent the nation’s fifth largest denomination, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), are holding a press conference in Memphis, Tenn., to call on Obama to denounce his position on same-sex marriage.

The Rev. Bill Owens is a veteran of the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and other noted civil rights leaders during the peak of the movement in the 1960s. He believes Obama’s evolution on the issues will have far-reaching effects on society and specifically in the black community.

“We will be spending the next weeks and months visiting black churches, asking for support from pastors and their flocks to speak up against the media-generated view that gay marriage is a civil right,” Owens told CP.

“We ask President Obama to stand with the black church, on the word of God and evolve again back to the common sense biblical view that marriage is the union of husband and wife.”

When asked if Obama’s “evolution” on the issue of same-sex marriage was surprising, Owens said “no.”

“The reason it didn’t surprise me was because President Obama is ‘political.’ But as pastors and members of the body of Christ, we’re disappointed – very disappointed.”

Bishop Jackson also said Obama’s announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage was nothing new.

“I realized Obama was for same-sex marriage from the very beginning of his political career,” said Jackson. “Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s former pastor) has been performing same-sex ‘commitment services’ for years. Obama has been exposed to this belief for years and has demonstrated time and time again that he does not believe that homosexuality is a sin. Actions speak much louder than words.”

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