<TriceEdneyWire.com> — Two hours after making his historic remarks on same-sex unions, then-President Barack Obama held a critical conference call with Black pastors to explain his support for gay marriage, according to the New York Times. The pastors who participated on the call told the paper that Obama explained how he struggled with the decision, and that several of them voiced their disapproval. The conference call was a quiet effort by the president to control the potential political damage which could possibly occur from his controversial announcement.
As a result, Black churches were conflicted in their reactions. Some were silent on the issue. At other churches, pastors spoke against the president’s decision—but spoke kindly of the man himself. While some were outraged at the president and his decision, there was a minority of pastors who spoke favorably of the decision while expressing understanding of the president’s change of heart. African Americans were a key voting bloc for the president. During the previous 2008 presidential election, exit polls showed Obama lost to John McCain among White voters, but won more than 95% of the African American vote. While African Americans overwhelmingly supported President Obama, traditionally most are socially conservative when it comes to gay marriage. Overall, many Black pastors said they would still support the president in the upcoming 2012 election even though they may not agree with him on this particular issue.
The gay marriage announcement by Obama highlighted a number of things. One, there exists a particular segment within the Black church that is progressive on issues regarding racial and economic equality, justice and fairness while remaining conservative on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. This particular stripe of Christian faith never aligned itself 100% politically with conservative or progressive evangelicals. It is a group that is motivated and passionate about racial and economic equality because it directly impacts their personal well-being and safety. It also directly impacts the well-being and safety of their families and communities. Secondly, it showed that the majority of Black Christians who previously supported Obama continued to do so despite their deep disagreement with the president over a major social issue. Despite their conservative beliefs, if a candidate fights for overall equality, justice and fairness which is critical to the day-to-day lives of people of color, it was proven that the candidate’s stance on gay marriage was not the type of deal breaker for them it would be for the ‘religious right’ voters.
As we reflect on the life of former President Jimmy Carter, we are reminded how he was clearly one of the most religious presidents in modern U.S. history who openly embraced the label “born-again Christian.” As a progressive evangelical, Carter was outspoken about Jesus and justice. His rise to power occurred during a major transformative period in American Christianity. Like the ‘religious right,’ Carter personally opposed abortion and same sex-marriage. Where Carter and the ‘religious right’ differed was on legislation. Conservatives were in favor of specific legislation Carter believed infringed on the separation of church and state, such as a proposed constitutional amendment banning abortion and a legislative attempt to restore prayer in public schools.
He did not campaign to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and he was a feminist who appointed more women to his administration than any other president before him. Carter supported the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed change to the Constitution that would have guaranteed legal equality to women. Many White evangelicals did not believe in women’s equality. As a product of the Deep South, he was a theologically conservative evangelical with a progressive political platform. Carter’s public stance on culture war issues cost him politically when his fellow White evangelicals along with the political advocacy of the Moral Majority abandoned him for reelection. They eventually threw their support behind his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan who received an estimated 56% of the evangelical vote in the 1980 presidential election. These voters did not just turn away from Carter. They turned away from part of their own tradition, historians say.
Carter represented a religious tradition where a White evangelical could credibly claim to be a Bible-believing, ‘I’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus,’ Christian and still be politically progressive, according to Randall Balmer author of Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. As a White evangelical, Carter didn’t fit in with the likes of Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority. “He had no problem being identified as a progressive evangelical,” says Balmer, who in his book recounts the story about Carter’s defense of a Black Naval Academy classmate and his refusal to join a white supremacist group. Carter represented what one commentator calls the “road not taken” by many contemporary White evangelicals. He was a peacemaker.
He was a global peacemaker both as president and during his post-presidency. Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and advancing democracy and human rights. During his post-presidency, he was a peacemaker by promoting racial reconciliation and collective healing within the Baptist church. In 2006, Carter joined with Mercer University President Bill Underwood in bringing together Baptists of different races and ethnicities, regions, backgrounds and theological perspectives to form an informal alliance. A year later, the New Baptist Covenant was formed. According to Rev. Mitch Randall, CEO of Good Faith Media: “It was President Carter’s life-long dream to put Baptists together who had been divided.” With his passing, it is our hope his dream is fulfilled.
(David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America.)
