March 6, 2005
Black Churches Struggle Over Their Role in Politics
By NEELA BANERJEE

tug of war is under way inside black churches over who speaks for African-Americans and what role to play in politics, spurred by conservative black clergy members who are looking to align themselves more closely with President Bush.

The struggle, mainly among black Protestants, is taking place in pulpits, church conventions, on op-ed pages and on the airwaves, and the president himself began his second term with a meeting in the White House with black clergy members and civic leaders who supported his re-election.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., the pastor of the Hope Christian Church in College Park, Md., is part of a new breed of leaders who have warmed to the Republican stand on social values. He paraphrases Newt Gingrich as he stumps the country to promote a "Black Contract With America on Moral Values," whose top priorities include opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion.

"Historically when societies have gone off kilter, there has been rampant same-sex marriage," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "What tends to happen is that people tend to devalue the institution of marriage as a whole. People start rearing kids without two parents, and the black community already has this incredibly alarming and, if I may say, this shameful number of babies being born without fathers."

He said he hoped to collect a million signatures of support this year.

Efforts like Mr. Jackson's have brought a sharp reaction from other black ministers, who bridle at putting their energies into fighting same-sex marriage.

"Oppression is oppression is oppression," said the Rev. Kelvin Calloway, pastor of the Second A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles. "Just because we're not the ones who are being oppressed now, do we not stand with those oppressed now? That is the biblical mandate. That's what Jesus is all about."

At the heart of the debate, church leaders say, is whether to stay focused primarily on issues like job creation, education, affirmative action, prison reform and health care, which have drawn blacks closer to the Democratic Party, or whether to put more emphasis on issues of personal morality, like opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, which would place them deeper in the Republican camp.

"I think there is a movement among African-American evangelicals who are extremely concerned about issues of family and abortion, and our leadership has to do something about that," said the Rev. Herbert H. Lusk II of Philadelphia, who was one of the ministers who met with President Bush in January.

Most black ministers have long been aligned with the Democrats, and Senators John Kerry and John Edwards spent Sundays in black churches in the last weeks of the campaign to get out the black vote.

But the White House has been reaching out to sympathetic black clergy members - through its stand on social issues, its effort to give religious groups more of a role in providing federally financed social services and ideas like Mr. Bush's proposed initiative to counter gang violence, a concern of some black ministers who support him, like the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers of Dorchester, Mass.

Although only 11 percent of black voters cast ballots for Mr. Bush, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls, conservatives point out that it was still an increase from the 8 percent in 2000, and Republicans seek to expand those numbers.

Some black ministers say the Republicans will not make headway. Asked if issues like same-sex marriage will galvanize African-Americans, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, "Well, they didn't make the Top 10 with Moses, and Jesus didn't make mention of them." Still, looking to bolster their own political power, the leaders of four black Baptist conventions representing 15 million parishioners met in January to fashion their first united stand in almost a century on social and economic issues and to bury past differences.

At the end of their four-day session, the ministers called for an end to the war in Iraq and withdrawal of American troops. They declared their opposition to the confirmation of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general. They stated their opposition to making the president's tax cuts permanent, and warned that reductions in spending on children's health care programs would be "immoral."

They say they are trying to counter the growing influence of white evangelicals in national politics. "They have a strong voice now in national politics, and it would seem they are the only voice," the Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, said of white evangelicals. "And the challenge to us is to be a voice that is soundly biblically based and that doesn't provide a blanket sanction to government policy as others have done. This is a dangerous time when white evangelicals dictate government policy."

But they also raise questions about the conservatives in their own ranks, accusing them of being seduced by Mr. Bush's "faith-based initiatives" program to funnel federal monies to church-run social service programs and asking how much sway they really have.

"Where did this come from?" said the Rev. Madison Shockley, pastor of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, Calif., who with Mr. Calloway wrote an opinion article in The Los Angeles Times in response to the "Black Contract With America." "It came from Bush and the Christian right, and the carrot is faith-based money."

Some conservative black ministers say, however, that they finally feel as if they have a political home. The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Church Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., said that for years he had struggled to organize a local ecumenical group of ministers concerned about issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Now, attendance at these meetings has risen considerably, and Mr. Dozier expects 200 ministers, black and white, at the next gathering in April.

"I don't think the old guard is that strong now. We're in south Florida and south Florida is heavily Democratic, yet the pastors I see are beginning to change, and as a result of them changing, it is going to change their flock," said Mr. Dozier, who also attended the January meeting with Mr. Bush. "Every social change has to start from the pulpit."

White evangelicals are also participating in the discussion. Ministers like the Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, an organization of 43,000 churches, are organizing black ministers in major cities around issues of sexuality. "We're looking for African-American clergy members who have local authority, and we're getting them to hold a summit on marriage, just one issue," Mr. Sheldon said.

Even longtime friends are being pulled in opposite directions. Dr. Shaw and Mr. Lusk, for instance, have much in common.

Dr. Shaw leads the country's largest black denomination, the National Baptist Convention USA, of which Mr. Lusk and his congregation are members. The churches where each has preached for decades are 20 minutes apart in Philadelphia, and each man preaches politics.

At his White Rock Baptist Church, Dr. Shaw has spoken out against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. He says he does not believe that the Bible permits such unions, but he pointedly rejects a government ban on them.

"My position on same-sex marriage is not that it is the sole determinant on moral issues," Dr. Shaw said. "Marriage is threatened more by adultery, and we don't have a constitutional ban on that. Alcohol is a threat to the stability of family, and we don't have a constitutional ban on that."

From his own pulpit, Mr. Lusk moves in the opposite direction. In services before Valentine's Day at his Greater Exodus Baptist Church, Mr. Lusk invited worshipers to a Sweethearts Dinner. But he cautioned them from attending with sweethearts of the same sex. "We're living in perilous times," Mr. Lusk said. "We're living in a time when the preachers we looked to are confused, when they're getting their sociology mixed up with their theology."

Mr. Lusk says that the differing priorities of politically liberal and conservative clergy members do not have to fracture the black community. He sees himself, he said, as a bridge between the National Baptist Convention and the White House.

"You don't square these things," Mr. Lusk said about the agendas of liberal and conservative black evangelicals. "You just agree to disagree without being disagreeable."

"The Klan in Memphis when I was a boy denied me the right to think what I wanted," he added. "We shouldn't get to a time in our lives when our own people deny us the same right to think. I think Dr. Shaw and other leaders understand that."



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06clergy.html

The African American churches can preach as they choose, and African American gays/lesbians are also voices in their communities. I think 4 more years of Bush's economic plans will move gay-marriage off the hot issues list. I wish Mass. gays and lesbians that are married, could let these church leaders see there is no threat from our relationships to straight marriages, and it's a trumped up wedge issue. I find it personally reprehensable that Mitt Romney quoted the filthy 1913 anti-inter racial marriage law as a means to stop non Mass. gay/lesbian people from marrying in Mass.

I did not read it all but I would like to make two comments.

If personal morality is not caring about the other fella and how he/she is treated then I do not know what it is.

I do not know why all this sudden shock about fatherless black families. Whatever happens in Africa in the USA according to the book I am reading about the early black church in America (The Negro Church in America by E Franklin Frazier) the black American family was never mum dad and children from the word go. It may have turned that way for a while, unlike in Britain, where a black family especially in inner cities is usually mother plus child(ren).

I would welcome any response, even criticism. I am just going to find out in the book where he says that in case it should be needed.

Page 5 of the book I quoted above.

'The enslavement of the Negro not only destroyed the traditional African system of kinship and other forms of organized social life but it made insecure and precarious the most elementary form of social life which tended to sprout anew, so to speak, on American soil - the family. There was , of course, no legal marriage and the relation of the husband and father to his wife and children was a temporary relationship dependent upon the will of the white masters and the exigencies of the plantation regime. (Footnote The author's 'The Negro Family in the United States - Chicago 1939) Although it was necessary to show some regard for the biological tie between slave mother and her offspring, even this relationship was not always respected by the masters. Nevertheless, under the most favourable conditions of slavery as, for example, among the privileged skilled artisans and the favoured house-servants, some stability in family relations and a feeling of solidarity among the members of the slave households did develop. This, in fact, represented the maximum social cohesion that was permitted to exist among the transplanted Negroes.'

Didn't Kerry say Bush voted against a Martin Luther King Jnr Holiday? Or was that Cheney he was talking about?

These black turncoat ministers should find out about Arlen Specter's position. He is the chap Mr Bush elevated over Pat Toomey in Pennsylvanian politics. Pat Toomey was the anti abortionist. Now look where Arlen Specter is, choosing judges. It is all on the records. Try the Boston Globe Archives.

I seem to recall it was Edwards versus Cheney, during the debate.

Personally, I don't think churches should play a role in politics, per se. I think if there are moral issues they feel they need to jump into, they should play a role in the issue itself as they did in the civil rights movement and getting people out to vote.

I have to ask, but WTF was this??



Yeah, lets review periods of time in which societies have gone "off-kilter":

the heyday of the Spanish Inquistion

the Crusades

the War of the Roses (English history, not the movie)

US history prior to emancipation of slaves/end of slavery

Salem Witch Trials

WWII

Viet Nam


Yes, I see the correlation now, society was over-run by all the same-sex marriage that was occuring during those time periods. I though one of the arguments against same-sex marriage was that historically, marriage was always heterosexuals only and there's no precedent for gay marriage (ergo, marriage is limited to 1 man and 1 woman)!

JeSUS, can't these people make up their friggen minds?

I am certain war mongering is very much anti-family values. For the victims of war and for the soldiers who leave their wives and children for months on end. And I won't go into what happens around U S Army camps all around the world. Heaven knows what they bring home to their wives.

http://localcgcs.org/modules.php
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=320&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0


more info at this link at Local CGCS - (look under Florida, then "Blacks Becoming more Conservative?")

That is an oxymoron.

What is any churches roll in politics.

I thought they were a taxexempt non partisan organization.

It is up to the individuals to research the candidates/issues and vote the way they are promted by the Lord.

Wait until African Americans turn to the faith-based charities for AIDS funds, food shelves, housing, chemical dependancy,etc and the funds have been spent fighting anti-gay marriage proposals and anti-abortion politician's coffers. There will be a Reckoning Day "ya hear that Black Ministerial Association of Greater Boston!"

We must be careful where we tread. Historically the Black Churches have supported Dems and turned out the vote- big time. Now we are all upset that white congregations are doing the same. To pull the rug out from under tax exempt status of Black Churches could open a Pandora's Box.

IMHO (and certainly not meaning to offend forum members here), I think the time has come for the Dems to support Gay Unions with full rights (as opposed to using the word "marriage").
And I also believe that we must reframe our stance on abortion to make it more than clear that we do not "support" abortion but that we feel it should be available as a last resort ( we have failed to get this across to the opposition). I even think we must consider opposing late term abortion unless the life of the mother is threatened.



she slinks off for fear of severe retribution from her fellow forum members....

If heterosexual couples also have civil union licenses that will be fine with me.
A restriction of a woman's right to choose an abortion, that doesn't guarantee the health of the mother won't get my support.

I wish people would think in terms of giving other people their rights rather than in terms of having their own rights restricted by that process.

This is the problem with so many people today of all colours and nationalities. They just do things because they have a right to do it, and I have no problem with that AS LONG AS it does not interfere with other peoples' rights. Like smoking for example.

As someone famous pointed out (Thomas Merton I believe)

the pleasure you expect to get out of having your own way is not usually what you expected anyway

second, you cannot usually have all your rights without stepping on someone else's rights whether you acknowledge it or even know it, or not.

This is where giving civil rights to gay people does not bother me at all, but allowing women the choice of an abortion or not an abortion does bother me. What about grandparents rights?? What about potential aunties and uncles rights?? Perhaps all these people do not matter in the ME FIRST society of the 21st century.

I watched the State of the Black Union on CSPAN last month. Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church (where the symposium was held) in Lithonia, GA was one of the panelists.

Tavis Smiley wanted to grill him about his meeting with Bush at the White House, but held back. Bishop Long was trying to explain why he was at the WH cozying up to Bush, but couldn't. He looked and sounded very defensive. He knows that he mislead his congregation into voting for Bush. Bush doesn't care about anyone period.