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Bush touts 'faith-based' plan to blacks, but Congressional Black Caucus balks

Earlier the Congressional Black Caucus rejected Bush's request for a meeting to discuss his Africa trip. In a letter to Bush, Cummings, the group's chairman, noted the organization "has requested a meeting with the President for over two-and-a-half years and unfortunately each time he has refused." Bush declined to meet with the group before his trip.

BUSH PROMOTES FAITH AT PRAYER BREAKFAST: BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR NEW WHITE HOUSE OFFICE

   ¶    The Bush faith-based plan is attracting considerable support throughout the network of black churches across the country. While black ministers and their congregations voted in large numbers for former Vice President Al Gore, some religious right groups such as the Promise Keepers have courted this block, fusing a conservative theological and political message with rhetoric of "racial reconciliation." Mr. Bush has reached out to this potential constituency, including Dallas "megachurch" evangelist T.D. Jakes, who is also a Promise Keeper rally speaker.
   The attitude of many black church leaders was expressed by Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Chris in Los Angeles. Blake considers efforts to paint Bush as "illegitimate" in light of the November election dispute to be foolhardy.
   "It would be a horrible mistake for black people to say, as some have said, 'We don't recognize him...' If you refuse to deal with him (Bush), the resources at his disposal will be given to others."

   Rev. Eugene Rivers of the mostly-black Pentecostal Azusa Christian Community church in Boston adds, "Right now, it's really coming down to the black preachers versus the black Democrats."
   Many of these church leaders are turning away from what they describe as the "declining civil rights industry" which emphasized protest and political power, in favor of operating community services. Bush's new faith-based initiative, they say, promises to infuse their churches and neighborhoods with new money, projects and influence.
   Others, like Rev. Floyd Flake who is a former congressman and now heads a New York City "megachurch," may not agree entirely with Blake's approach but believes that the future lay in an accommodation between religious groups and government.
   Bush offers not only funds and renewed vigor for inner-city religious groups, but he often speaks the same conservative social language. Black churches have wrestled with issues such as abortion and gay rights; and many express some of the same conservative views that are voiced on the religious right by groups like the Family Research Council. Many also agree with Bush and the Republican line that a "rivalry" which has supposedly existed between church and state in recent years needs to be addressed, and that, as the president said yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, "The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end."