Dwight McKissic, the founder of the “Not on My Watch” coalition to protect marriage, rejected parallels made between the “homosexual suffering” and the suffering of the black man in America, during a chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, on Oct. 13, 2004.

“When homosexuals have spent over 200 years in slavery, when homosexuals have been legally defined as three-fifths human, when homosexuals have been denied the right to vote and own property because they are homosexuals, then we can begin a discussion of parallels [between the civil rights and gay rights movements],” McKissic said at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus.

McKissic took note of the suffering and violence endured by the black man throughout the year by referring to the case of Emmett Till – a 14 year old black child who was killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955.

“No white lesbian has ever been murdered for whistling at another white girl. But black men have been murdered for even a perceived interest in white women,” he said.

McKissic went further, saying, “to equate civil rights with gay rights is to compare my skin with their sin.”

“At the dawn of this new millennium, the church of the living God cannot allow the gay rights movement to hitch itself to the civil rights movement without putting up a fight,” the pastor said. “We must not allow the gay rights movement to persuade this nation to approve of their sin under the banner of civil rights.

“To equate gay rights and civil rights is insulting, offensive and racist. It is time for this generation to rise up and say, ‘Not on my watch!’” said McKissic, in reference to the name of the coalition of African American pastors against the same-sex “marriage” culture in the U.S.

McKissic continued his message by explaining the difference between the two “rights” movements.

“Civil rights are rooted in moral authority,” he said. “Gay rights are rooted in a lack of moral restraint.”

He also said there are intrinsic differences between racial and sexual identities.

“I’ve heard that homosexuals say that they discovered they were gay at 18 or 25 or 33 years of age. I don’t know any black people who didn’t discover their blackness until they were 25 years old.... I’ve met ‘former homosexuals.’ But I’ve never met a ‘former black person,’ other than perhaps Michael Jackson,” McKissic said.

McKissic told the attendants that sexual preferences are not innate.

“If I could be a homosexual by nature, I could also be a polygamist, adulterer, pedophile or child molester by nature. Should we pass laws to approve of these behaviors?” he asked.

Continuing from there, McKissic told the audience that Christians have the duty to make sure such laws are not passed, since the stance of God is clear on the issue.

“When Christians open their Bibles, God opens His mouth,” said McKissic. “On the subject of homosexuality and same-sex ‘marriages,’ God has spoken and He did not stutter.... God’s Word not only disapproves of homosexuality. It disapproves of those who approve of homosexuality.”

Therefore, Christians must find out “where a politician stands on the subject of same-sex ‘marriages’ and civil unions” before they vote for that person.

“If we vote for a politician not knowing where he stands,” he said, “we could find ourselves approving of what God disapproves.”

“As for me and my house, we’re going to cast our votes for politicians whose positions line up with the Word of God,” McKissic said. “Any politician who believes gay rights and civil rights are comparable is not fit to lead us.”

“We in America are on the brink of approving same-sex ‘marriages,’ which would put us in the same category as Sodom and Gomorrah,” McKissic said. “So I want to warn Americans today, in the words of the late Dr. E. V. Hill: ‘God has another match!’”