As pro-traditional marriage initiatives are scheduled for the November ballot in as many as 11 states, Christians are educating fellow believers on the same-sex “marriage” debate and encouraging them to vote in the fall.

More than 4,000 people gathered for the “Sanctity of Marriage” rally on Sept. 26 at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center. The rally was sponsored by Jonesboro churches and pastors in support of a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman and also in support of Amendment 3, an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot that would ban same-sex “marriage” in the Arkansas.

Participants represented more than 40 area churches from Craighead and surrounding counties. Twenty members of the university’s Gay-Straight Alliance picketed in protest before the rally, demanding the “same rights as everyone else.”

However, according to Rev. Bill Owens, a leading pastor in Memphis and civil rights activist, homosexuals already have what they are seeking for.

“The homosexual marriage is not a civil rights issue,” Owens told the rally’s crowd. “They have their civil rights."

Another speaker at the event, Rev. Adrian Rodgers, pastor of the Fullness of Joy Church in Jonesboro, explained why marriage for the whole should not be redefined to suit the wants to homosexuals, who only make up a fraction of the population.

Rodgers cited a survey posted on the Traditional Values Coalition Web site reporting that only 2.8 percent of males and 1.4 percent of females admit to being gay, lesbian or bisexual.

"Why is a group that makes up less than 3 percent of our population dictating what the majority must do?" he asked. "Where does it stop? Do we legalize polygamy and pedophilia, just so we don't take away anyone's 'civil rights'?"

Another group of churches from Hickory, North Carolina, also held a rally supporting traditional marriage over the weekend.

Speakers of the “We Are United” rally encouraged the crowd of 300 at the Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday to take a stand for marriage by voting this fall and attending the “MayDay for Marriage” rally in Washington D.C. on Oct. 15.

“Voting is an opportunity for another voice to be heard in Washington,” Dr. Clifton Black, pastor of Mountain Grove Church, in Granite Falls, NC. and one of the event speakers, told The Christian Post. “Sometimes, we, in the body of Christ, are quiet when we ought to be heard.”

The second speaker, Pastor Charles Kyker of Christ United Methodist Church in Hickory addressed the sexual identity crisis while the final speaker, Dr. Thomas Steele of New Hope Baptist Church in Concord, assured the people that God was able to bring healing direction and restoration to the nation.

“The attitude and the lifestyle that we portrayed was one of compassion and concern instead of condemnation and judgment,” Black said.

Meanwhile, a bus is touring Kentucky urging voters to pass the state marriage initiative. The tour is sponsored by Alliance for Righteousness.

Louisiana and Missouri voters have already passed amendments banning same-sex “marriage.” The House of Representatives voted down the Marriage Protection Amendment Thursday.