Posted on 11/28/2015 10:14:29 AM PST by conservativejoy
When a group of black pastors agreed to meet with Trump on Monday, they did not anticipate that meeting would turn into a de facto endorsement of the Republican frontrunner.
Several members of a group of prominent African American ministers scheduled to meet with Donald Trump Monday are making clear that they have made no commitments to endorse the real estate magnate. Their public declarations of non-endorsement come after a press release from the Trump campaign announced a coalition of 100 African American religious leaders will appear with the real estate mogul shortly after the meeting to endorse him.
Bishop Clarence McClendon, a Los Angeles-based minister who was invited to the Monday meeting with clergy, posted to Facebook after the Trump campaign announced the coming endorsements.
"I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate and when I do you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting courtjesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia," he wrote.
Bishop Corletta Vaughn, the Senior Pastor of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Faith in Detroit, posted a message on Facebook after she said her inbox was "blowing up with inquiries" after her name was included on a list of pastors meeting Trump.
"Let me be clear," she wrote. "I was invited to attend a gathering of clergy to listen to Mr. Trump on Monday November 30. I respectively (Sic.) declined as I do not support nor will endorse Donald Trump."
"I was asked 2 meet with Mr Trump too but I refused because until he learns how to respect people you can't represent me thru my endorsement," Bishop Paul Morton, a prominent pastor in Atlanta tweeted on Friday.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about which ministers will endorse him on Monday.
In fact, of the pastors scheduled to meet with Trump earlier in the day, so far only one, Pastor Darrell Scott, has said he will attend the press conference to endorse Trump.
In an interview with the Daily Beast on Friday, Scott said that he had organized Monday's meeting between Trump and black clergy, but that his invitation
Black Pastors To Trump: What Endorsement?
"Some of these pastors have never even met Trump yet," Scott said. "They told me, 'I don't know if I'm ready to endorse yet. I want to see him and I want hear his heart'."
Some might not endorse Monday, he said. Some might not endorse at all.
"All of these guys are my friends and they know me," he said. " I let them know I am endorsing but that doesn't mean you are endorsing."
The Trump camp's own announcement that 100 black ministers will endorse Trump has been greeted in the black faith community with a combination of confusion and anger, particularly after a week in which Trump has mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability, suggested that a black protester who was kicked and punched at a Trump rally in Alabama "deserved it," and when Trump himself has suggested Muslims be surveilled at certain mosques.
Recent polls show Trump getting between three and 10 percent support from African Americans. Trump has assured his crowds he will win the black vote.
"The 100 pastors they say are endorsing Donald Trump? I don't know where those 100 are coming from," said Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent AME pastor based in Baltimore. Bryant, who earlier this year ran for Congress as a Democrat, said he had spoken with a number of the pastors attending the Monday meeting who were taken aback by the Trump announcement about the endorsements. "I don't know what policy these pastors could mobilize around. I can't find a strand of any policy he has that the larger black community would be respond to."
Bryant said that he finds Trump's larger message to minorities to be disturbing and troubling. "It's a cross between Archie Bunker and reality television," Bryant said. "It's frightening and unnerving that the Republicans would be at this point with him as their frontrunner."
Scott said he expected there would be "a number" of pastors endorsing Trump, but did not know who or how many. He described his own reasons for endorsing Trump as personal, political, and spiritual.
He considers Trump a friend and said that his message resonates with him personally. Scott also said that Trump has never offered him money, as many have suggested, nor would he accept it.
"If God raises up somebody who can speak the word of God to Trump who he will listen to, and God feels I can help provide an avenue for him to have a dialog with African American, then I embrace that position," Scott said. "If that does happen, it's God that did it."
that 3 to 10 percent needs to be closer to 10.
I’m still going with Ted first. Not the popular decision on here lately. Trump’s 2.
The case of JD is 3.
So maybe The Donald is not necessarily looking for an endorsement, he just wants a meet-and-greet, to SHOW that he is, in fact, a real human being, and not the caricature that has been drawn of him.
The Donald is not looking to attract Republicans (though that might not be a bad idea, especially if Republicans can also see The Donald as a human being), and this outreach will not go unnoticed. Many more people are noticing The Donald, and some are forming opinions that, on balance, come out very much in favor of what The Donald is presenting as his message.
The black condition, today, culturally is worse than it was in the beginning. Public housing, welfare, WIC, and all the rest of the handouts have been detrimental to their condition and culture. Case in point, when things don't go the way they want, they riot and loot. Great behavior.
If these pastors really want something, then they should be preaching a work ethic, respect for women, respect for society in general, respect for education and respect for the rights of other people.
I could go on, but I think one can get the picture.
Actually 97% of black pastors endorse Trump. The one’s claiming otherwise are just outliers and likely in the pay of big oil and other Trump-deniers.
-—So maybe The Donald is not necessarily looking for an endorsement-—
Unless the article is lying, his own campaign called the meeting an endorsement...
VERY dumb for the Trump people to call this an endorsement before the fact.
Wow... that’s delusional...
A little pro AGW lingo?
Cruz is very clearly a far better choice, but popularity has been propelling Trump. We shall see, but remember, the country needs far more than a man to make it right again.
I agree. They could still end up with a sizeable number of endorsements but they are off to a clumsy start.
Fox meanwhile is 24/7 bashing Trump.
Lying and Denying that Trump has a solid following, thinking that anyone believes a word Fox News says anymore.
Lying and Unbalanced, Trump Deniers, that is Fox News
I hope that Fox goes over the line of Libel and Defamation, because Trumps lawyers must be just waiting for them to say the wrong thing.
“VERY dumb for the Trump people to call this an endorsement before the fact.”
When was that said?
The only thing FOX accomplishes this is loss of credibilit and viewers.
Yep ;-)
Since when does Patty Murphy speak for the black faith community? When was she appointed the genius on what the black faith community believes? Because she scribbles for a liberal web site?
“VERY dumb for the Trump people to call this an endorsement before the fact.”
Trump doesn’t know what truth is as he seldom speaks it. Yes, he’s claiming these 100 already endorse him. As, in, blacks love me, I will get the black vote, Mexicans love me, I hire thousands and thousands of them, Jews love me, everybody loves me. He is nauseous provoking in his ridiculous claims.
Fox news is just as liberal as all the rest. I don’t trust any of them.
I agree. Also, Rubio does not qualify under the Constitution. Both of his parents were Cubans.
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