Anti-Obama black pastors group has conservative ties

Since William Owens launched his national campaign in May calling on African Americans to withdraw their support of President Obama because of his stance on gay marriage, the minister has claimed the backing of 3,700 black clergy and touted his organization as predominantly Democratic.

But Owens and his group, the Coalition of African-American Pastors, are drawing criticism from black leaders and the political left who note Owens’s long-standing ties to GOP politicians. They charge that CAAP misrepresents itself as a nonpartisan grassroots organization when it is actually backed financially by right-leaning conservative groups.

“He is the poster person of conservative evangelicals . . . who are trying to use this as an emotional wedge issue to divide the black community,” said Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and a protégé of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.