Black Pastors and The Money Changers (op-ed)
In 2006 Senator Barack Obama met with former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. Obama was contemplating a presidential run. And what Daschle saw in Obama was a chance for the Democratic Party to start anew and avoid a third Clinton presidency.
Daschle knew after eight years of the Bush administration the American voters were not going to elect another Republican. The next president was going to be decided in the Democratic primary. Daschle encouraged Obama to run, and he had a simple suggestion for his former colleagues. It was ABC, anybody but Clinton.
But during Obama’s presidency the Democrats lost over 900 state legislative seats, 12 gubernatorial elections, 69 house seats, and 13 Senate seats which encouraged 17 Republicans to run for president in 2016.
Why so many?
The results of mid-term and state elections proved the American people were voting Democrats out of office. Republican’s felt history was repeating but this time the presidency would be decided in their primary. (And the simple suggestion from Democratic strategists was let Clinton take the fall in the general election.)
Now suppose there was a hypothetical group of Black pastors, lifelong Democrats, but they believed their party didn’t have a traditional Democrat seeking the nomination. They’re not interested in endorsing the progressive politics of the front runner or the socialist concepts of an independent posing as a Democrat for the presidency. And this group was aware of the data that suggested the winner of the Republican primary will be the next president. Wouldn’t it be in their best interest to meet with the Republican candidates? (Lobbying firms contribute to both parties because somebody has to win and they want access to the office holder.)
Recently one hundred Black pastors were invited to meet with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. There was some confusion about if the meeting was an endorsement or a meeting for the candidate to address specific concerns of the group. But politics aside it’s a dialogue desperately needed in a community that has voted democratic to its own detriment because it believes a democratic failed policy is better than a Republican alternative.
Other Black pastors should have encouraged this dialogue or asked for an invitation regardless of their personal politics. Imagine if 1,000 Black pastors met with the Republican presidential frontrunner, all other Republican candidates would have wanted to meet next, and most importantly the Democratic Party would realize the black vote is not guaranteed.
But that didn’t happen. Instead of political support the one hundred Black pastors were chastised in an open letter via Ebony magazine from “more than 100 Black religious leaders and scholars.” The open letter asked: Will the gospel be present at your [meeting] with Trump? Or will the integrity of the Black church be ruined because it is primarily concerned with creating alliances with powerful people who care more about buying votes than they do securing material equity? Will we be a church that thinks actively about the ways that unregulated capitalism brings great harm to the communities we serve? Then they urged the one hundred pastors invited by Trump to return to the revolutionary politics of our religious roots. They also stated a meeting with Trump would de-radicalize the Black prophetic political tradition. To stand with Jesus is to have great skepticism about systems of power and a willingness to question the motives of the powerful.
But Jesus also overturned the tables of the money-changers. In order for him to do that he had to be standing at the table. If you pay close attention to the biblical story his disciples were not standing with him. Do you think they tried to persuade Jesus not to enter the temple and suggested he stand outside with a protest sign that read: How dare you turn my father’s house into a market?
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 12/9/15
Daschle knew after eight years of the Bush administration the American voters were not going to elect another Republican. The next president was going to be decided in the Democratic primary. Daschle encouraged Obama to run, and he had a simple suggestion for his former colleagues. It was ABC, anybody but Clinton.
But during Obama’s presidency the Democrats lost over 900 state legislative seats, 12 gubernatorial elections, 69 house seats, and 13 Senate seats which encouraged 17 Republicans to run for president in 2016.
Why so many?
The results of mid-term and state elections proved the American people were voting Democrats out of office. Republican’s felt history was repeating but this time the presidency would be decided in their primary. (And the simple suggestion from Democratic strategists was let Clinton take the fall in the general election.)
Now suppose there was a hypothetical group of Black pastors, lifelong Democrats, but they believed their party didn’t have a traditional Democrat seeking the nomination. They’re not interested in endorsing the progressive politics of the front runner or the socialist concepts of an independent posing as a Democrat for the presidency. And this group was aware of the data that suggested the winner of the Republican primary will be the next president. Wouldn’t it be in their best interest to meet with the Republican candidates? (Lobbying firms contribute to both parties because somebody has to win and they want access to the office holder.)
Recently one hundred Black pastors were invited to meet with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. There was some confusion about if the meeting was an endorsement or a meeting for the candidate to address specific concerns of the group. But politics aside it’s a dialogue desperately needed in a community that has voted democratic to its own detriment because it believes a democratic failed policy is better than a Republican alternative.
Other Black pastors should have encouraged this dialogue or asked for an invitation regardless of their personal politics. Imagine if 1,000 Black pastors met with the Republican presidential frontrunner, all other Republican candidates would have wanted to meet next, and most importantly the Democratic Party would realize the black vote is not guaranteed.
But that didn’t happen. Instead of political support the one hundred Black pastors were chastised in an open letter via Ebony magazine from “more than 100 Black religious leaders and scholars.” The open letter asked: Will the gospel be present at your [meeting] with Trump? Or will the integrity of the Black church be ruined because it is primarily concerned with creating alliances with powerful people who care more about buying votes than they do securing material equity? Will we be a church that thinks actively about the ways that unregulated capitalism brings great harm to the communities we serve? Then they urged the one hundred pastors invited by Trump to return to the revolutionary politics of our religious roots. They also stated a meeting with Trump would de-radicalize the Black prophetic political tradition. To stand with Jesus is to have great skepticism about systems of power and a willingness to question the motives of the powerful.
But Jesus also overturned the tables of the money-changers. In order for him to do that he had to be standing at the table. If you pay close attention to the biblical story his disciples were not standing with him. Do you think they tried to persuade Jesus not to enter the temple and suggested he stand outside with a protest sign that read: How dare you turn my father’s house into a market?
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 12/9/15
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