Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading African-American pastor says he can't support Barack Obama because the presidential candidate is out of the mainstream when it comes to abortion. Pastor Clenard Childress, says Obama is favors unlimited abortions and wants to overturn state laws to reduce abortions.
Childress, the senior pastor of New Calvary Baptist Deliverance Church in Montclair, New Jersey, says he no longer buys the "lip service" he gets from Democratic presidential candidates.
"The Democrat Party has for years given lip service to the African-American community. They have talked about prominence without fulfilling the promise," he says. "They patronize without empowering."
Most upsetting to Pastor Childress is the prominent link the Party and its new leader, Obama, have with abortion advocacy groups. Obama told Planned Parenthood in July 2007 that he wouldn't back down from doing everything he could to promote abortion.
"Worst of all, this unholy bond has done more to decimate and deplete our community than slavery and Jim Crow laws ever could have accomplished. This allegiance has destroyed millions of our children; children created but denied access to the American dream, children aborted," he says.
While Obama is hailed by other African-American leaders because of his race, Pastor Childress says Obama is a "new face, same tune" candidate who has no difference from previous white Democratic presidential candidates when it comes to abortion.
Childress says he is still taken aback by a comment Obama made during his prior campaign for the U.S. Senate, in which he employed abortion is not an important issue because few of his supporters asked him about it.
"As I travel around this state ... I don’t get asked about abortion," Obama said at the time.
"As an elected official, should anyone have to ask you about abortion to make it your concern?" Childress says.
"We are deeply troubled, but not surprised at the Senator’s remarks," Childress said of the growing number of black Americans who will not vote for Obama. "One would only have to look at Obama’s consistent support and advocacy for the .. abortion industry to understand. "
"I am horrified at this man’s voting record. Anytime Planned Parenthood gives you a 100% rating, all Americans should cringe in fear because they are the leading abortion provider in the nation," Childress adds.
Childress says Obama's record of opposing the ban on partial-birth abortions and his repeated votes against an anti-infanticide bill in the Illinois legislature show the candidate is out of touch with Americans and black Americans in specific.
"His response to these questions is not indicative of the Black community’s beliefs, and certainly shows a low degree of conscience and moral fiber," Childress concludes.
