A conservative minister is sticking by his comparison of Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses on religious grounds, to Rosa Parks, arrested in 1955 for not yielding her bus seat to a white passenger.
"Rosa Parks was a hero to me and Kim Davis is a modern day hero in that they both stood against evil and stood up for good," the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said Tuesday to Amy Holmes, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"Kim Davis is standing up because homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle and it goes against the principles of God. So like Rosa Parks, she's standing on values, what is right, and I really admire her for that as I admire Rosa Parks.
"I'm also insulted when I hear anyone comparing homosexuality or abnormal sex to black Americans. As I said, we were discriminated against because of our color. They never asked us who we were having sex with."
Peterson, president of Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) and a syndicated radio host, sparked a furor when he wrote a column comparing Davis with Parks.
He said while nobody should be discriminated against based on color, "as Christians, we have a responsibility to reject wrongdoing."
"Homosexuality is based on sex. Homosexuality is not about values, it's not about civil rights, it's not about love," he said.
"A marriage is between a man and a woman, not between two men or two women. That has been the rule forever, ever since mankind has been on Earth.
"So what homosexuals are trying to do is to get you to change the rules based on sex … I'm totally against so-called same-sex marriage. It will destroy society if we should allow that to happen … I like the step that Kim is taking."
Davis was jailed for five days for contempt of court after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling. The Apostolic Christian said to do so would violate her religious rights.
On Monday, she returned to work and agreed to a stopgap measure that allows her deputy clerk to issue the licenses while leaving her name off them.
Parks — who has been dubbed "The first lady of civil rights" — was arrested, Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., after refusing to give up her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger.
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