It never ceases to amaze me how people can read whatever they want into an article (usually based on their own misguided beliefs) instead of simply reading the words in front of them. This happened to me again after a piece I wrote about the separation of Church and State appeared last week (here). Some folks accused me of suggesting the Black Church should stay out of politics — when for years I’ve actually been saying just the opposite: The Black Church has an obligation to get deep into every facet of life in the community it serves … and this includes financial well-being and literacy, education, health, prisoner reentry as well as political … and the list could go on and on.
What I did actually decry in the article was the interjecting mostly religion into what should have been a forum on county public policy at an event held at Mt. Zion, a church in Oakwood Village last month. Candidates for the newly proposed County Council were invited to the forum, but few questions were asked in regards to their qualifications for the job … instead they were queried in regards to their religious affiliations and experiences. That’s as silly as trying to determine if a doctor who is about to operate on you is qualified in his surgical profession by asking his opinion of whether LeBron is going to stay or go.
An observant friend of mine pointed out that Rev. Marvin McMickle (perhaps the most learned man in the state of Ohio) posits that the Constitution doesn’t demand a separation between Church and State, as if my position is in opposition with the Right Reverend’s. But if you were to listen closely to his sermon on the subject he advises that we should pray for politicians because of the influence they have over our lives … and to watch them like hawks in terms of the decisions they make — to which I say a rousing “Amen.” This is totally different than imposing some sort of religious litmus test such as “What church you go to?”
To set the record straight: I believe the Black Church and the Black Press have historically been the two institutions most responsible for driving black advancement in America. Indeed, I shudder to think where black folks would be in this country without either of these entities, and the rigorous work they have so gallantly and assiduously accomplished. But institutions and movements can sometimes veer off course, lose their focus, and confuse their mission. This is what I think happened to the Black Church to some degree over the last few decades.
After the bruising Civil Rights battles of the 60s, and the passage of federal legislation to outlaw discrimination, some folks (and, yes, I was one of them) mistakenly thought the victory was won … that bigotry and racial injustice was on its deathbed in America; but we couldn’t have been more wrong. The backlash to parity and fair play was fast and furious in coming, and it continues in some quarters until this very day. Just look what the yahoos are doing down in Texas, renaming the “Slave Trade” the “Triangle Trade” in textbooks in an attempt to exculpate America for its participating in perhaps the greatest holocaust in human history by sanitizing the language. Some folks, like Rand Paul are still fighting the Civil War.
And one of the mainstays of the backlash against black rights and democracy that we’ve been witnessing now for almost half a century has been the right-wing, conservative Christian movement … those same folks who for centuries used biblical justifications for slavery.
So I firmly believe that the sleeping giant of the Black Church should rouse itself and once again become active in the fight for justice (a call Rev. Mac has made on more than one occasion) … and one of the ways to accomplish that is to hold candidates for political office responsible … but responsible for their positions on policy, not for their positions on prayer.
In no way should anyone want the Black Church to begin mimicking the far-right Christian conservative movement … a movement that that has been clever enough in the past to turn some money-hungry black ministers across the country into modern-day Judases, men who lead their congregations astray for personal financial gain … and, yes, we have a few of them right here in Greater Cleveland. Alas, not all preachers are the same.
Not that determining if a candidate has a good moral character should not be part of the equation, but only after it has been determined if they know how to do the political/public policy job. Indeed, one candidate for the County Council is going around his district (which lies totally within the City of Cleveland) promising folks that he will get potholes and sidewalks fixed … and the sad thing is, the audiences he’s telling this to is cheering him. The only problem is, except for county roads, some bridges and certain highways, street repair is a function and duty of city government and the new County Council would never try to take over that responsibility. Similarly, another candidate is running around the district she’s running in promising voters that if elected she’ll fix the problems with Cleveland schools — again, not something that falls under county government.
These people are one of two things — either very stupid, or, they are knowingly engaging in demagoguery, pure and simple: Find out what a person is concerned about — what their fears are, and make promises to fix the problem and/or alleviate the fear, no matter if it falls under the scope of power of the office they are seeking or not.
Indeed, the Bible warns of this kind of demagoguery when it speaks of “false prophets” — those individuals who attempt to use a person’s religious convictions to lead them astray.
If, say, an intelligent voter asks of a potential candidate how the new County Council might be able to assist the county agency charged with the welfare of children in strengthening and better defining its mission, a religious demagogue might answer “It’s said in Proverbs that ‘The mother endures with greater courage the loss of one out many children, than she who, in her tears, exclaims, Thou wast my only one!'”
Point being, when persons running for office (and also some people who are already in office) don’t know the answers to thorny public policy issues they fall back on platitudes, biblical rhetoric and straight-out mumbo-jumbo; giving answers that have absolutely nothing at all to do with the questions … but here’s the kicker: some folks are so gullible they go for it! I’ve seen politicians get up and give answers so unintelligible they might as well be talking in tongues — and people are applauding these banalities as if they are words of wisdom falling from the lips of a learned and erudite oracle. People are actually going hog-wild over hollow and inane speeches — and then are begging for more.
Now, I’ve got nothing against people getting the Holy Ghost in church, but when they start applying the same types of behaviors to politics just because an event might be hosted at a church, that scares the hell out of me.
Supposedly, a few centuries ago, the Queen of Hawaii said, “When the white man came we had all the land and he had all the Bibles, now, 20 years later, we have all of the Bibles … and he has all of our land.” I just don’t want black folks to get robbed of good political representation … in the name of the Lord.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.