DALLAS -- Participants at a gathering of black clergy in Dallas said they hope to unite 10,000 black churches to work on a social justice agenda.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said church leaders have paid a lot of attention to gay marriage but have not put a similar focus "on raising the minimum wage for working poor people and adequately funding America's education system."
AP via KCCI in Des Moines
The Reverend Al Sharpton was on the Al Joiner radio show this morning. The title of this diary was from a bit of the speech he plans to give tonight.
"There are no gay people coming to our churches asking to get married, but there are plenty of people coming with problems voting or their sons in jail," Sharpton said. "I am not going to sit here silently and let these leaders distort our church with these issues."
Sharpton said tours are planned of swing states starting in July to bring out black voters and push Democrats to take a tougher stand on social justice issues.
Jackson said the mid-term elections, which will determine hundreds of congressional seats and the the governors of dozens of states, are a "fight for America's soul" as the gap between rich and poor grows in this country.
If Democrats fail to address concerns, Sharpton said he has not ruled out a run for president in 2008.
A spokesman for evangelical conservatives accused Sharpton of stereotyping Christian conservatives, many of whom agree with black churchgoers on key issues.
"Let's not play off each other in ways that are based on stereotypes," said the Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Boo Hiss.
But Monday's remarks underscore a growing chasm between the largely white Christian conservatives who helped make opposition to gay marriage and abortion Republican priorities and religious blacks, who tend to be socially conservative but politically progressive, said Melissa Harris Lacewell, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
She said Republicans are unlikely to win over many black voters this election with their positions on gay marriage, abortion and prayer in school. But those issues could well keep religious blacks away from the polls, she added.
"The leaders know that if black people are given a choice between Jesus and the Democratic Party, they are not going to vote against Jesus," Harris Lacewell said. "These black ministers are trying to reframe the language of morality so private morality choices do not eclipse traditional social issues."
AP via the Star-Telegram
I don't have a lot of commentary to go with the article (sorry) but I haven't seen a diary on Jackson and Sharpton's conference and Summer tour. I must admit that I greatly enjoy hearing Al Sharpton speak during the presidential primaries in 2004. He and the other candidates who had no hope of winning the Democratic nomination took the opportunity to bring forth a lot of great issues in the debates. I wouldn't like to have him as a spoiler third party candidate in 2008, but hopefully that won't be an issue.
I was also a total sucker for Al Sharpton's 2004 DNC speech:
I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table.
But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.
And I wanted somebody in my community -- I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.
As you know, I live in New York. I was there September 11th when that despicable act of terrorism happened.
A few days after, I left home, my family had taken in a young man who lost his family. And as they gave comfort to him, I had to do a radio show that morning. When I got there, my friend James Entome (ph) said, "Reverend, we're going to stop at a certain hour and play a song, synchronized with 990 other stations."
I said, "That's fine."
He said, "We're dedicating it to the victims of 9/11."
I said, "What song are you playing?"
He said "America the Beautiful." The particular station I was at, the played that rendition song by Ray Charles.
As you know, we lost Ray a few weeks ago, but I sat there that morning and listened to Ray sing through those speakers, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains' majesty across the fruited plain."
And it occurred to me as I heard Ray singing, that Ray wasn't singing about what he knew, because Ray had been blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple mountains. He hadn't seen many fruited plains. He was singing about what he believed to be.
Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time.
But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.
Starting in November, let's make America beautiful again.
Thank you. And God bless you.
I wish some of our pols could hang out with Jackson and Sharpton (and Bill Clinton) long enough to pick up their ability to genuinely connect and move their audience.
P.S. Jackson and Sharpton also announced a boycott of BP. I'm not sure why, since that would simply give Exxon & Shell more business. I go out of my way to buy from Citgo, myself.
