Posted on 11/09/2003 8:20:56 AM PST by Cathryn Crawford
White evangelicals, black churches could reshape politics
By WILLIAM McKENZIE / The Dallas Morning News
This wasn't your ordinary presidential rally.
Ministers were urging the crowd to "go crazy for the Lord." Shouts of "glory hallelujah" echoed through the sanctuary. Cries of "get radical for Jesus Christ" followed along. All the while, people clapped, swayed and sang.
And this was before the main event, when the 43rd president of the United States was to appear. When George W. Bush finally strode onto the stage, alongside the Rev. Tony Evans, the sanctuary went wild.
As I said, this wasn't your ordinary presidential rally.
It was even more unusual because the president is a white evangelical and the audience was the largely black congregation of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas. You may not think those two groups have much common ground. And you may be surprised by the overt religious language. But that's where President Bush stopped by last week to congratulate Pastor Evans and his church on its new youth center.
The president also wanted to chat about his policies that encourage churches like Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship to use federal dollars for their mentoring programs and other social initiatives. A "social entrepreneur" is what Mr. Bush termed his friend, the Rev. Evans, in talking about the church's Project Turn Around initiative.
White evangelicals and black congregations may seem incongruous, but it's time to say hello to a force that could transform American culture and politics if the two grasp their potential.
A Pew Research Center poll this summer revealed that white evangelicals and African-American churchgoers share many beliefs. They tend to agree about Israel's fulfilling biblical prophecy about Christ's return. They think religious values should influence politics. And they don't want gay marriages or assisted suicides.
They possess other common characteristics, too. "They share the idea of helping people," Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship member Vicky Sellers said about white evangelicals and black churchgoers who want religious institutions to help resolve issues like drug addition.
Most of all, they share strong religious values. They both believe "God's in charge," Tanya Greene of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship said. Both value "the Lordship of Christ," her friend Luciana Lang added.
You can't put a political term on those beliefs and probably shouldn't. These values reflect a deeper language that exists outside of politics.
The common vocabulary nonetheless creates a strong spiritual connection between two of America's more powerful political forces. White evangelicals and African-American churches both emphasize personal conversions, Bible reading, daily prayer and regular fellowship. The exuberant reception Mr. Bush received at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Wednesday night came out of their common habits and language.
Where the two part company is over issues of justice and power. And those differences are profound. The first political leader to find a way to bridge the divide will find quite a wind at his or her back.
Mr. Bush comes close. In his speech to the Oak Cliff congregation, he again decried "the soft bigotry of low expectations" that he says characterizes too many inner-city schools.
But the president talks about religion transforming individual hearts, without saying enough about how it can transform larger institutions. He told the crowd at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship that he "was glad to be with people who are transforming a community one heart at a time." But what happens if that community still lacks enough good-paying jobs or if its people can't find affordable housing? They still are stuck economically.
That's why power and justice issues separate white evangelicals and African-American churchgoers. One African-American I interviewed attributed the divide to different life experiences. Blacks experienced a lack of justice; many whites didn't.
Perhaps the gap between the two potent forces will be bridged only when "the pews" in white evangelical and African-American churches start talking with each other about their values and experiences. There are plenty of chances to do that today, with many black urban and white suburban churches working together on projects.
If the two can bridge their differences, watch out. This odd couple could change American culture and politics. At that point, rallies like the one last week in Dallas won't seem so strange.
William McKenzie is an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is wmckenzie@dallasnews.com.
If there are Christians who are racist, they too are rejecting Christ and Christian teaching. That has been clear in every word I've written on this thread.
So quit twisting my comments.
I quoted you word for word. You are a Christian Elitist. The Jews reject Christ.
2.America is a religious country and as you well know before the Wilsonian secularists took over the Church always a strong influence on politics. It is more muted now than in the past but it is still there and and very strong in a lot of communities.
3.As you know I live in Mass and there is a small but growing Evangelical movement. When I was a kid the only Protestants were us Yankees, there were no Pentacostals, no Southern Baptists, and no Independant Evangelical Churches, out side of the black community. It ain't that way anymore, I like to keep track of these things.
Another thing is that the Mass Republican Party, is largely, again outside of us Yankee straight ticket voters, is largely composed of non Irish hyphenated Americans, many of whom are very attached to their church, Greeks, Armenians, and Italians.
Well, here we have President Bush doing precisely the right thing (pun intended). He's there. He's speaking. More importantly, he's listening.
It's a start.
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