Bill Berkowitz
February 10, 2005

Cash & Carry

Bush, Blacks and the Faith-Based Initiative

By using faith-based money to court African American churches, is Team Bush laying the groundwork for a political realignment?

On February 10, a headline in the Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times read "Bush continues outreach to Blacks". Bill Sammon reported that President Bush had met in the White House with hundreds of "Black leaders" and told them that his policies "would help Black Americans." According to Bill Sammon, "The president's 15-minute speech in the East Room was interrupted 17 times by applause from an audience that included Black clergy, veterans, business leaders and members of Congress. Among those in attendance were Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, and Rep. Melvin Watt, North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus."

This latest meeting with Black leaders is part of an aggressive strategy by the Republican Party and conservative philanthropy aimed at African American churches and, through them, Black voters -- the Democrat's most loyal constituency.

In the 2004 presidential election, the GOP made a slight gain in the number of Blacks voting for Bush -- up from nine percent to 11 percent of Black votes, according to exit polls. And they did even better in the critical swing states of Florida and Ohio. In Florida, Bush's support among African Americans in November rose six percentage points to 13 percent, and in Ohio, Bush may have garnered as much as 16 percent of the Black vote.

For the past two decades the leadership of the GOP has concentrated on building a solid cadre of Black conservative organizations and media personalities that could be counted on to support its agenda. Since the beginning of the Bush presidency, the emphasis has gradually added the courting of Black churches to its arsenal. This is being accomplished in no small part through the handing out of millions of dollars in faith-based grants to African American churches. A project that was once financed mostly by conservative philanthropies is now being underwritten by the public in the form of these faith-based grants.

On February 1, Los Angeles Times staff writers Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten reported on a meeting of more than 100 African American ministers who were to gather at the Crenshaw Christian Center, one of Los Angeles' biggest Black churches that is headed by televangelist Frederick K.C. Price. The goal of the confab was "to build support for banning same-sex marriage -- a signature issue that drew socially conservative Blacks to the Republican column last year." Abortion and school vouchers are also of special interest to conservative Blacks.

Hamburger and Wallsten's story, headlined "GOP Sees a Future in Black Churches -- Social issues are binding the party with a group once firmly in the Democratic camp", reported that Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Maryland and a registered Democrat, would unveil a "Black Contract With America on Moral Values," "a call for Bible-based action by government and churches to promote conservative priorities." The Black Contract is reminiscent and "patterned loosely" on then House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" that he introduced 10 years ago "to inaugurate an era of GOP dominance in Congress."

According to a report in the Pasadena Star News, Bishop Jackson's "Contract" includes "protecting traditional marriage, prison reform, creating wealth for minorities and providing healthcare for the poor." The High Impact Leadership Coalition, which was introduced at the Los Angeles meeting, has scheduled six more conferences throughout the country this year.

The Los Angeles meeting was co-sponsored by the Rev. Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (website), a Christian right network of churches with close ties to the White House, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman and other senior Bush administration officials.

In late-February, another group with ties to Gingrich will gather in Washington to announce a "Mayflower Compact for Black America." This group plans to organize in key states ahead of the 2006 and 2008 elections. Vivian Berryhill, a longtime Mississippi Republican and president of the National Coalition of Pastors' Spouses (website) is one of the leaders of the Mayflower Compact effort.

Hamburger and Wallsten also reported that the Heritage Foundation (website), a Washington, DC-based conservative think tank, "will cosponsor a gathering of Black conservatives in Washington designed to counter dominance of the 'America-hating Black liberal leadership' and to focus African American voters on moral issues."

The meeting at the Heritage Foundation is being organized by the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson of Los Angeles, the founder and President of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (website), whose purpose, according to its Web site is "Rebuilding the Family By Rebuilding the Man." Rev. Peterson is a longtime critic of the civil rights leadership in general, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson in particular. Rev. Peterson, the author of "SCAM: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America," has been a regular guest on the Fox News Channel and other cable news networks. BOND's Board of Advisors includes the well known conservative economist Walter E. Williams, Dennis Prager, the right wing radio talk show host and Sean Hannity, Fox's television personality.

The Rev. Peterson said that the conference would be aimed at disabusing Blacks of the notion that racism is the cause of their economic and social problems and that they should begin taking personal responsibility.

"I saw Black preachers turning toward the Republicans in greater numbers this election," Rev. Peterson told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't know if it's because they believe in it or they want some of the faith-based money. Whatever the reason, they are turning; and as a result of the preachers leaving, many of the congregations are following."

Cash and Carry

What is behind the sudden surge in GOP activity? Are Black religious leaders so taken with the specifics of the GOP agenda that they are so willing to collaborate with the Bush presidency? And, is it Black voters or Black church leaders that the GOP is really after?

After months of investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported in January that out of the more than $1.5 billion in federal funds handed out to faith-based organizations in 2003 African American churches had received many millions of dollars. And many African American church leaders had subsequently switched party affiliation in time for the 2004 presidential election.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, one of the "city's most prominent Black pastors," who had supported both Bill Clinton and Al Gore in "past presidential elections," had switched to Bush this time around. His "face appeared on Republican Party fliers in the battleground state of Wisconsin," and he endorsed President Bush "as the candidate who 'shares our views.'" Two weeks before the election Bishop Daniels "turned over the pulpit to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, one of Bush's most prominent African American advocates."

"We know what faith-based can do every single day," Steele told the congregation, drawing head nodding and remarks of "yes" and "Amen" from more than 1,000 in the vast sanctuary.

The Times also reported that Bishop Daniels met "with top administration officials" and also met with "the president himself." Later, his church received $1.5 million in federal funds through Bush's faith-based initiative.

"A Philadelphia church led by the Rev. Herb Lusk II received $1 million in federal funds for a program to help low-income Philadelphians," The Los Angeles Times reported. "Lusk gave the invocation at the 2000 Republican convention and has been an outspoken Bush supporter."

In South Florida, an organization headed by Bishop Harold Ray, "a longtime Bush acquaintance who gave an invocation for Vice President Dick Cheney at a West Palm Beach, Fla., rally. Ray's group received $1.7 million in taxpayer funds."

Los Angeles Times reporters Peter Wallsten, Tom Hamburger and Nicholas Riccardi pointed out that "The money that flowed to Daniels' church was part of a broader effort inspired by Bush's contention that religious groups can do a better job than government in providing such services as counseling, education and drug treatment...

"The White House adamantly denies that the faith initiative is a political tool. But the program has provoked criticism that the GOP is seeking to influence new supporters, especially African Americans, with taxpayer funds. The Rev. Timothy McDonald of Atlanta, a prominent Black minister with Democratic ties, dubbed the program an 'attempt to identify new leadership in the Black community and use the money to prop these people up.'"

"There's no question that the faith initiative -- combined with the administration's support for banning gay marriage and promoting school vouchers -- has already helped reshape Bush's image among some traditionally Democratic African Americans. And the change in Black support on Nov. 2, though only a 2-percentage-point increase nationwide, helped secure Bush's reelection victory. The gains were greater in battleground states."

In addition, in the months preceding the election technical assistance workshops offered by the Bush Administration were conducted in St. Louis, Missouri and Miami, Florida, before either state was sewn up by the GOP.

"We're committed to continuing to grow that percentage [of the Black vote], and we recognize that it's going to require a long investment," said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who the previous evening kicked off a series of his own outreach meetings with Black leaders. "I strongly believe that if we lay out our policies and lay out our vision, that we have a tremendous opportunity," he said.

Despite the vast amounts of money that is involved, it won't be smooth sailing for Team Bush. The Black Commentator recently reported on the meeting of 10,000 delegates from four Black Baptist denominations that was held in Nashville, TN, in January: "Representing 15 million members, the four denominations' presidents agreed to move towards a common agenda dramatically opposed to the Republican administration -- and fully in line with the historical Black Consensus. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Black Baptists "...declared their opposition to the war in Iraq and to the nomination and expected confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general."

The Baptists "also called for a higher minimum wage, discontinuation of recent tax cuts, investment in public education and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, some provisions of which are up for review in 2007... [and they] demanded that Bush stop the privatization of prison construction, reinvest in children's health insurance and increase global relief for Black nations such as Sudan and Haiti."

Lionel Leach, the Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund-NJ, and a member of Help America Vote, told the Black Commentator that "New Jersey has the most voter suppression in the country," and the GOP has "done everything possible to suppress the Black and Latino vote."

The Black Commentator summed up the GOP attitude towards Blacks: "In what appears on the surface like a kind of political schizophrenia, Republicans use every legal and illegal means available to keep Blacks from voting en masse, yet spend vast sums to gain the overt or covert support of Black ministers."

The GOP strategy is "not to convert legions of Blacks to the GOP, which would seriously dilute the party's white appeal and is, at any rate, impossibility. The Right's real goal is to create the impression of fundamental splits in Black ranks, and thus subvert the credibility of mainstream leaders who hold to the historical Black Political Consensus. Everywhere, there exist Black preachers and hustlers who are willing to advance the GOP project. Money does the trick. Marginal increases in Black votes for Republicans are welcome, especially in close races, but this is not a battle for the hearts and minds of Black America. Rather, it is an assault on the historical unity of African Americans."