Jude 2

Daily Journal wrote:By Galen Holley
Daily Journal

President-elect Barack Obama promises to institute the kinds of social reforms that are important to Christians concerned with social justice. African-American Christians, in particular, anticipate Obama will act on Biblical imperatives such as caring for the poor.

Most black Christians, however, are socially conservative and find themselves at odds with Obama’s stance on some other important Christian issues.

“I might disagree with him on 2 percent, but I’m with him on the other 98 percent,” said Bishop Clarence Parks, pastor of the Temple of Compassion and Deliverance in Tupelo. That 2 percent includes issues like abortion and homosexuality.

On Tuesday, record numbers of African-American voters were instrumental in defeating propositions to legalize gay marriage in three states. Parks said that shouldn’t be surprising. “I’m 100 percent against it,” said Parks, adding that most of the members of the 15 churches under his care, spread throughout four Southern states, share his beliefs.

The Rev. Jimmy Barnes, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Tupelo, agreed with Parks, but he said for historical reasons blacks are slow to deny rights to anyone. “Once we begin taking away people’s rights, it becomes a slippery slope where we make judgments,” said Barnes. “That’s for God to decide.”

For Barnes and Parks, as for many black Christians, a pragmatic theology shapes their social outlook. It’s for that reason, they say, they can accept Obama’s social liberalism so long as he remains committed to the cause of justice.

For example, the Rev. James Hull, former pastor of Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Booneville, said he’s less concerned with a theological argument about sex than with promoting policies that reach the poor.

“I’ll fight over whether or not a child in the Delta gets three meals a day,” said Hull. “But, I’m not going to fight two gay men over whether or not they can get married.”

Right and left
Barnes, Parks, and Hull feel the Christian right has used issues like homosexuality and abortion to gain a political advantage. Parks said during this election he’s repeatedly had to defend the fact that most black Christians vote Democratic.

The reason, Parks said, is no mystery. “In the civil rights era the Democratic Party championed so many black causes that we formed a relationship,” said Parks.

Hull said this year Obama succeeded in reaching black Christians who “took their faith in search of a political home.” That, he said, “is very different than staking out a political position, then looking for Bible verses to back it up, as the Christian right has done.”

The three men conceded, however, that the Democratic Party’s position on abortion disappoints them. Parks pointed out that Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, “came in under a Republican president, Richard Nixon,” but he understands that the real power of a president in shaping abortion policy lies in nominating justices for the Supreme Court.

At a Planned Parenthood conference in 2007 Obama criticized conservative Supreme Court justices for voting to uphold a ban on partial-birth abortions. He also made clear his intentions to nominate justices with “empathy” for his pro-choice position. If Obama serves two terms he stands to make several* new nominations to the Supreme Court.

Speaking for his colleagues, Hull said although this presents a concern, “We don’t consider that a litmus test for a moral candidate.” He added he’s confident that Obama will address a wider range of moral issues important to black Christians, such as warfare and poverty.

Pastor Gary wrote:No. And I cite as evidence the passage of California's Prop 8, which made gay marriage illegal. Some political analysts are attributing the passage to the increase in voters from the Evangelical predominantly black churches and Hispanic Catholics -- the irony being that the very people who exit-polled for Obama also voted for Prop 8, suggesting that they liked Obama, but disagreed with him on the issue of gay marriage.