Overland Park ? Nearly 100 Johnson County ministers rallied Thursday in support of an effort to get rid of Kansas lawmakers who voted against a proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

“I don’t hate gay people,” said the Rev. Jerry Johnston, of the First Family Church in Overland Park. “I love all people. But this issue goes beyond homosexuality.

“This is a symptom of the moral corrosion of this country. MTV is getting a gay program. When is this going to stop?”

Johnston said Thursday’s session was just the beginning of a statewide battle. Similar meetings to rally support for the drive have already been held in the Wichita area.

Kris Kobach, an Overland Park Republican who is vying for his party’s nomination in the 3rd Congressional District race, told the audience Thursday that allowing gay marriage would open a floodgate of litigation and destroy the institution of marriage.

“This is the greatest constitutional movement in my lifetime,” said Kobach, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “It could be the greatest constitutional issue in the 21st century, and is the single most important issue in my campaign.”

Kobach noted the U.S. Constitution has a clause that requires states to honor contracts made in other states. That means if Massachusetts laws allowing gay people to get married stand up in court, he said, other states will be constitutionally required to recognize those marriages.

After the Kansas House voted last month against putting the state constitutional amendment before state voters, a group of prominent Kansas ministers vowed to rally their congregations to defeat those lawmakers who opposed the ban.

The ministers have set a goal of registering 100,000 new Kansas voters before the Aug. 3 primary, and information about how to register members of their congregations was provided at Thursday’s meeting.

Tiffany Muller, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Unity and Pride Alliance, said the fight against the gay marriage amendment galvanized the gay community. The House vote showed that Kansans aren’t overwhelmingly opposed to gay marriage, she said.

“By the defeat of this, though, we didn’t win any rights. We’re in no different position in Kansas than we were six months ago. The only thing we managed to do is keep from being oppressed even more.”