Pastors: "Let's let this be a vote for God and not for sin"

Editor's note: The following is a partial transcript of presentations made by pastors at yesterday's City Council meeting. For more info on the event and the City Council decision leading up to it, check:

-- Domestic partners' benefits issue erupts in and out of Council chambers

-- El Pasoans had little say on City Council's on policy to give domestic partners medical benefits

-- Turner: "I will not stand silent"

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Felix Pagan, a pastor of a Christian church

Talk about $287,000 of our tax money. I was doing some research on Catholic Apologetics International. I have some statistics over here. I'm going to just mention a few of them for lack of time. But reading the statistics, I didn't find anything good that comes out of this lifestyle. This is not against any person at all. But it’s a lifestyle. So I'm here representing the Hispanic people here in El Paso, 80 percent, and also the city of El Paso. Now the Bible says, if you may please allow me to read Matthew 19:19 says … 'he who created them from the beginning made them male and female.' So that is the word of God. The person who opened with the invocation he prayed to God and he said 'God you created Heaven and Earth and everything that is in,' so I think we all should listen to that and believe that. That is the Bible. So where can we spend this money, where can we use it effectively.

... As far as I know with all due respect to every person who has chosen this lifestyle, nothing good has come of two men and two women.

Lead Pastor Rod Smith, Cielo Vista Church

I'm a watchman on the wall, which is part of an organization of the FRC, which is the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. We stand for family values and we recognize a marriage is between a man and a women. We do not believe that any public recognition of same sex partnership should be part of public policy.

Barney Field

Public servants and pastors have a lot in common. For example, we're all interested in providing pure water for the people of El Paso. Amen (amen from the crowd). The city goes through a lot of effort, provide very clear regulations to provide pure water so when we turn on the tap like I did this morning (holds cup of water up) we can get water we can enjoy (takes a sip of water).

The same thing applies to pastors. Pastors want to provide pure spiritual water to the people of El Paso. Now if a group of pastors got together and decided to raid the water facility and said 'we got some things we want to add to the water supply in El Paso that we think will be good for the city' and it's against the regulations of the water commission you would be incensed, especially if people started getting sick, right? You'd get upset with those pastors and put them in jail where they should be. The same thing applies to the spiritual water in our city.

If our government starts passing laws that are against the regulations, that are against the guidelines in the Bible it starts to contaminate the spiritual water of our people (crowd member, yes) and as they start drinking that spiritual water it will affect them. For example, what will Mayor Cook say to his grandchildren when they say to him 'hey you approved homosexual benefits so that must mean homosexual is fine what does God say about homosexuals?' Well, he says it's an abomination. I'm not saying that, I'm not making that up. I wish he didn’t say that but he says it's an abomination, it's something that contaminates the spiritual water of our community. I thank you for keeping our water clear .. use the guidelines that God provides, let's let this be a vote for God and not for sin.