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Black Pastors Express Deep Concern over Clinton’s Stance on Abortion, Religious Freedom

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (photo credit: Lorie Shaull via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Earlier this week, a group of 26 African-American religious leaders signed an open letter to Hillary Clinton requesting that she meet with them to discuss issues of importance to the black community. They then went into details on a number concerns they hope to hear her address, including two issues which have become particularly problematic for Democrats: abortion and religious freedom.

On abortion, the letter slams Clinton for saying in a speech last year that people’s beliefs “have to be changed” on the issue, a comment which the church leaders write “is reminiscent of totalitarianism.” They then go on to chastise her for failing to protect “the lives of the innocent” unborn, especially unborn African Americans:

…[O]ur opposition to abortion is a logical outgrowth of our view that there must be justice for all. Particularly relevant is the innocence of the unborn child. The Bible places an extremely high value on human life and particularly on the lives of the innocent who are under the special protection of God. Those who take the life of the innocent violate a key biblical principle as well as a fundamental principle of natural justice.

Abortion in the black community has had a catastrophic impact. Nationally there are 365 black babies aborted for every 1,000 that are born. Blacks account for roughly 38% of all abortions in the country though we represent only 13% of the population. In New York City, the situation is absolutely dire.

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Why I Can’t Stand CNN

Photo credit: Josh Hallett via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

I have written about why I can’t stand GOP operatives and why I can’t stand the mainstream media. Now I want to get more specific and name names. Here’s why I can’t stand CNN.

On Saturday, CNN ran a headline: “Donald Trump Dredges Up Clinton’s Use of ‘Super Predators’” Really? “Dredges Up”?

What a difference a few months can make. Back in April, CNN’s Jake Tapper brought up Hillary Clinton’s controversial comments to Bernie Sanders, all but begging for Sanders to go on the attack. Sanders declined, “Sorry, Jake, not gonna go there,” although he did eventually relent, “I think it had race connotations.”

Both Tapper and Trump have a point in “dredging up” these comments. Watch this clip of Hillary Clinton speaking on the campaign trail in 1996 for her husband, President Bill Clinton. The money quote comes at 0:58:

We also have to have an organized effort against gangs, just as in a previous generation we had an organized effort against the mob. We need to take these people on. They’re often connected to big drug cartels, they’re not just gangs of kids anymore. They’re often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators.’ No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel…

“Super-predators”? “These people”? “Bring them to heel”?

Imagine Donald Trump saying any of these things. The media — and especially CNN — would insist on weeks of coverage. Continue Reading

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ACLU State Director Quits Job, Blasts Organization for Intolerance

Photo credit: Michael Hanscom via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Maya Dillard Smith, a black woman, quit her job last week. Was bigotry and harassment to blame for her quitting? Sort of. I’ll let her explain what happened:

I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices, entered. My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.

So she began asking questions about President Obama’s transgender mandate forcing schools to allow boys who think they are girls to use the girls’ restrooms. But her employer had no tolerance for her commonsense values.

So, Dillard Smith, who has degrees from Berkeley and Harvard, quit her job. . . as executive director of the Georgia ACLU. She was reportedly one of only three black ACLU state directors.

She blasted the ACLU for being intolerant and refusing to “engage in dialogue.” She said the radical group is “a special interest organization that promotes” only “certain progressive rights . . . based on who is funding the organization’s lobbying activities.”

Dillard Smith’s experience is another reminder that black Americans supported traditional marriage in greater percentages than white Americans.

Conservatives need to be reaching out to the black community on values issues. But, first, the Republican Party has to find the will to actually fight for these issues and make the case for traditional values. Continue Reading

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Is Trump Gaining Support from Black Voters? (VIDEO)

Frank Cannon is president of the American Principles Project and a respected conservative political strategist with over 30 years of experience.

I think that when you have a black presidential candidate, as you had in Barack Obama, getting out of single digits is not very likely [for a Republican]. But Hillary Clinton, while she has a stranglehold on the black vote and people say that — if Trump is able to get into the mid-teens and moving from the mid-teens possibly into the twenties, [that] would also be very significant.

Trump is getting about 57 percent of the white vote, with 10 percent still undecided, which means that he can get into the low to mid sixties. If that were the case and he were to take a ten percent difference or a fifteen percent difference in the minority votes, Hillary Clinton is in trouble. And I think that’s what’s happening in the polls that we’re seeing with the race tightening.

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Carson: “All Black Lives Matter”

Dr. Ben Carson (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

Dr. Ben Carson wants to shift the focus of the Black Lives Matter movement.  This past Saturday, the presidential candidate appeared at a daylong conference at Allen University, a historically black college, alongside Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley to discuss issues concerning black communities. Dr. Carson said that the Black Lives Matter movement needs to shift its focus from police brutality to other atrocities threatening black lives like abortion and homicide:

“I believe that we ought to be talking about all black lives, not just a few,” Carson said. “The greatest number of black lives are eliminated in abortion clinics and that bothers me, and when I look in our major cities, the number one cause of death for young black men is homicide. That to me is a very serious problem. I would like them to mix those things in and let’s talk about all that rather than just one small segment.”

However, he did offer solid answers to the struggling relationship between police officers and people of color. Police should reach out to their communities. They should be “introduced regularly, so that Johnny’s first experience with police is playing kickball, not being chased down an alley… You don’t condemn the whole group, and base policies on the bad apples.” When it comes to police brutality, policies do not work in a space where individual situations are to be considered.

Carson noted the national issue can be curbed by reinforcing the respect once given to police officers, especially by the black community. Continue Reading

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Clinton, Republicans Snubbed by Influential African American Church

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (photo credit: State Chancellery of Latvia via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Church of God in Christ, a historically African American church comprising over 12,000 churches in the United States, has reportedly turned down multiple speaking requests by the Hillary Clinton campaign to speak at their St. Louis convention in November, Breitbart reports:

Whether to allow Clinton to speak publicly to the congregation was discussed among Church leaders on three separate occasions – including a recent request to speak at its annual international convocation in November, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

This year’s convention will be held in St. Louis and expects to host 40,000 attendees as well as many influential speakers and musical artists.

Previously, Clinton representatives asked permission for her to speak publicly at the congregation meeting of bishops and at a women’s convention, according to the source who was familiar with the conversations.

The reason for the snub, according to a pastor and advisor to the COGIC, presiding Bishop Eugene F. Rivers III, is that the church is tired of being taken for granted, as well as Clinton’s opposing views on abortion and gay marriage:

“There is the perception among the political actors from both parties that the black church are useful idiots who will be called upon at the last minute to function as ground troops, but there is no respect apparently on either side of the aisle for the moral perspectives of the black church,” he said.

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Carson Calls Democrats “the Party of the KKK”

Dr. Ben Carson (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

At a meeting of black leaders and activists last week, Dr. Ben Carson alleged that electing Democrats does a disservice to the community, and that the broken promises of Democratic lawmakers has led to a situation “perhaps just as bad” as the prejudicial Jim Crow laws of the early 20th century:

“The Democrat Party, of course, is the party of the KKK. Of Jim Crow laws. And perhaps just as bad right now, of servitude. ‘Now you do this, and we’ll take care of you, pat you on the head, take care of all your needs.’ Which keeps people believing that’s what they actually need,” Mr. Carson told the small group.

Carson also said that the best way for African Americans to exert authority was not through electing more Democrats, but through economic power, citing leaders like businessman and major civil rights movement funder A.G. Gaston as examples:

“I think he has a very good point. It’s something that black America needs to understand,” Mr. Carson said. “Jewish America understands it. Korean America understands it. Black America, if they could understand it, they could blow everybody else out of the water.”

Nick Arnold is a researcher for American Principles In Action. Continue Reading

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Carson: “The Number One Cause for Death in the Black Community Is Abortion”

Dr. Ben Carson (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

Dr. Ben Carson made an important point this week when asked about his impression of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.  Carson expressed his admiration for the movement suggested a new message for its proponents going forward: an emphasis on mutual respect and a renewed focus on most pervasive causes of death in the community:

Mutual respect is a tremendous thing. I think that will help a lot with the whole #BlackLives matter issue. But it needs to be done in a way the [sic] demonstrates a way that we also understand that there is tremendous carnage in our community. The #1 cause for death in the Black community is abortion. Let’s look at what’s behind that and let’s look at Black on Black crime and teach each other how to respect and love your fellow man. I just really want to dial back the hatred. There’s so many people who come in and they exacerbate the tension.

Carson also talked about his vision for the economy, noting that stagnant growth has been a major cause of our government spending problems over the last 15 years:

I want to focus on divisiveness because our strength of our nation comes from unity. And I want to focus on economy. We’ve had a very stagnant economy. From 1850 to 2000, our economy grew at a rate of 3.3% on average. From 2001 to 2014, a rate of 1.8% and if if [sic] you project that out over the years, in terms of unfunded liabilities it creates a crisis.

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The Three Fab Things Ben Carson Told #BlackLivesMatter

Dr. Ben Carson (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

In his column going viral, Dr. Ben Carson speaks truth as a black men to the Black Lives Matter movement. Three fab takeaways:

1. Old, white senators from rural states are not the problem:

The idea that disrupting and protesting Bernie Sanders speeches will change what is wrong in America is lunacy. The ‘BlackLivesMatter’ movement is focused on the wrong targets, to the detriment of blacks who would like to see real change and to the benefit of its powerful white liberal funders using the attacks on Sanders for political purposes that mean nothing for the problems that face our community.

2. Black Moms matter:

I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny. But my mother didn’t. . . she saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card.

3. Hollywood degrades black men and women:

Let’s confront the entertainment industry that lines its pockets by glamorizing a life where black men are thugs and our women are trash. Let’s tell them we plan to start talking with our wallets.

Schools that don’t work, streets that aren’t safe, young people who can’t find work, Democrats who offer a handout instead of “honor and dignity,” a Republican party that simply ignores.

“There are many things to be concerned about when you are consumed by hopelessness. Continue Reading

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Defend Black Christians’ Civil Rights Now

Former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran (public domain photo via FEMA)

In the latest version of the Strange New Respect award, Rick Perry is earning plaudits from the left for his speech on race. Buzzfeed called it “remarkable” and MSNBC called it “interesting”:

“For too long, we Republicans have been content to lose the black vote because we found we didn’t need it to win. But when we gave up trying to win the support of African Americans, we lost our moral legitimacy as the party of Lincoln, as the party of equal opportunity for all,” Perry said. “It’s time for us once again to reclaim our heritage as the only party in our country founded on the principle of freedom for African Americans.”

From MSNBC’s point of view, conservatism is founded on racial animus and dog whistles thereto, but reporter Steve Benen does raise the key question:

Outreach is great, but what exactly are Republican candidates and officials prepared to say to black voters?

Outreach to Hispanic voters failed in 2012, because the Romney campaign had promised donors that no money would be spent on advertising or outreach on social issues.  Running one a one-legged stool means surrendering the fight for a goodly portion of America’s diverse ethnic voters, especially the new Americans.

But the Democrats’ new insistently aggressive posture towards religion opens up a new opportunity to speak directly to African-Americans not only on their values, but on their interests.

Because in a uncertain economy, it turns out that a disproportionate share of Americans losing their livelihoods because of their religious views (especially on marriage) are Black evangelicals. Continue Reading