NEWS STORY: Christian Coalition courts blacks, seeks racial reconciliation

c. 1997 Religion News Service

BALTIMORE _ When Christian Coalition president Pat Robertson, in an extraordinary gesture, kneeled before a predominantly black congregation Saturday (May 10) and accepted its prayers on his behalf, his conservative political organization took another symbolic and highly visible step in its effort to promote racial reconciliation.

The prayers for Robertson came at the end of the coalition’s Congress on Racial Justice and Reconciliation, a daylong meeting capped with a religious service that brought together some 500 people to explore ways white and black conservatives can join in common cause on issues of race and justice.”We are with you in the Christian Coalition and I’m with you personally and, together folks, we will see the elimination of racial bigotry in America,”Robertson said in a speech at Israel Baptist Church just before an interracial group of clergy laid hands on him in prayer.

Even before the meeting, the coalition has made efforts to reach minorities, particularly African-Americans. In the past year, the group has donated $850,000 to help burned black churches and in January the group unveiled its Samaritan Project, a combination of legislative proposals and economic problems to assist churches and other ministries in the inner city. Part of the project includes a pledge to raise $10 million by the year 2000 to help”at-risk youth.” But critics claim the coalition’s legislative agenda will hurt rather than help people of color.

At the start of the congress _ held at a downtown hotel before concluding at the church _ the Rev. Earl Jackson, Samaritan Project director, addressed the critics.”There are those who say that we have a hidden agenda but let’s be clear on what our agenda is,”said Jackson, who organized the meeting.”We have not come here with a Republican or Democrat agenda. We have not come here with a liberal or conservative agenda. We have come here with the agenda of Almighty God.” Most of the meeting _ well before its concluding service _ resembled the vibrant worship of a black congregation. Many jumped up from their seats and applauded the speakers, or shouted”Amen”to their comments. A soloist and a children’s choir performed. A soundman pumped up the volume on a gospel choir’s tape as speakers exchanged places at the microphone.

Those addressing the crowd ranged from conservative politicians to pastors of burned churches helped by the coalition to gang members who said their lives were turned around by inner-city ministries that accepted them. Some had come by bus from Charlotte, N.C., and Milwaukee, Wis., where the first African-American Christian Coalition chapter has formed.

When Ralph Reed, the coalition’s outgoing executive director stepped to the podium, he was greeted warmly.

Reed, who made headlines a year ago when he declared white evangelicals were on the”wrong side”of the civil rights movement, repeated that sentiment.”We need a spirit of repentance,”Reed said.”We need an acknowledgment among those who are my co-religionists that the white evangelical church was sadly and painfully the picket fence that once sustained Jim Crow and segregation. … I’m seeking the absolution of my friends and, most importantly, of Almighty God.” Reed decried the inner cities’ resemblance to war zones, the”stacked deck”against minority defendants in the criminal justice system and the presence of metal detectors in elementary schools.

He also outlined the Samaritan Project’s plan to push for government-funded tuition aid for parents sending their children to religious schools, enterprise zones for economic development, and the ending of discrimination in federal funding of anti-drug programs run by churches.

Calling congress participants”my brothers and sisters,”Reed promised:”I stand before you today committed to this cause until it is complete, not because of my politics, but because of my faith in Jesus Christ.” Reed recently announced he will leave his coalition post in Sept. 1 to become a political consultant.

The Rev. Melvin Tuggle II, whose Clergy United for the Renewal of East Baltimore received a $10,000 Samaritan Project grant on Saturday, said in an interview the coalition should consider replacing Reed with Jackson, an African-American pastor from Boston, if it is serious about racial reconciliation.”My preference is that Earl move into that slot,”he said.

Jackson, when asked about Tuggle’s comment, responded by saying the decision will ultimately be made by the coalition’s board.”I have the desire to serve God wherever he leads me,”Jackson said.”That means if there were overtures to me, I would very seriously consider it.” People For the American Way, which launched an advertising campaign in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., questioning the coalition’s stands on racial issues, held a news conference before the congress to oppose it.”What they plan to do has nothing to do with the issues that divide blacks and whites in this country,”said the Rev. Charles R. Stith, a board member of People For.”Their actions and agenda clearly indicate that their intent is to try to enlist African-American people of faith in becoming unwitting accomplices in an effort to move this country in retreat back to those days when we were a nation `separate and unequal,’”he said.

(STORY CAN END HERE _ OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOW.)

People attending the meeting seemed interested in learning more about the coalition’s plans for reconciliation.

Edward and Mary Jane Eyring of Gospel Rescue Ministries in Washington, were two of the sprinkling of whites attending the congress.”Anybody that wants to help the poor is a friend of mine, whether that’s the federal government or Colin Powell or the president or Ralph Reed,”said Edward Eyring, who brought a dozen of his clients to the meeting.”I haven’t heard anything here that was offensive.” Faye Anderson, president of the Douglass Policy Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, said she particularly appreciated the coalition’s highlighting”unsung heroes”working in the inner city.”The need is so great, you think, `What can I do in this small storefront organization?’”she said.”When you see that you are part of a bigger movement, then it has to be motivating.” Jacqueline Gordon, communications director for the May 24 Black Conservative Unity Summit in Washington, said she’s supportive of the coalition’s stands on moral issues and is glad to see the group reaching out to minorities.

But, she said, the reconciling of blacks and whites is not in Robertson’s hands alone.”He may just be a seed planter,”she said.”I don’t think it’s about him. It’s about God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be here.”

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