Bishop Jackson What Me Homophobic?

The growing list of marriage equality opponents that deny their position is rooted in homophobia includes Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., the Pentecostal minister fighting against same-sex marriage legislation in Washington, D.C.

Jackson is the subject of a notably one-sided profile in The Washington Post on Wednesday.

"I just feel like I'm on a mission," says Jackson of his work to prevent marriage equality. "It's not a mission of hate. It's a mission to protect godly boundaries."

Like Ruben Diaz Sr., a fellow Pentecostal minister who opposes the marriage equality bill awaiting a vote in the New York state senate, Jackson offers words of praise for the gay people in his life, including those he met as an undergraduate at Williams College.

"Some of the smartest people I knew in college were gay," he says. "Some black students I knew who were gay were off-the-charts smart."

For Jackson, opposition to marriage equality is rooted in his concern for the challenges facing the black family in America, according to the Post.

"I don't know of anybody black who says, 'I hate gay people.' We're more accepting generally. But you overlap that -- homosexuality and gay marriage -- with broken families, and we don't know how to put it back together."