NEWS FEATURE: Clinton has a special affinity with African-American religiosity

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ President Clinton, a white Southern Baptist with a Roman Catholic education, likes to call Bishop Donne L. Lindsey, the leader of some 135 black Pentecostal churches in Arkansas,”my bishop.” The two men have laughed, cried, worshiped and eaten barbecued ribs together ever since Clinton’s first term as governor […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton, a white Southern Baptist with a Roman Catholic education, likes to call Bishop Donne L. Lindsey, the leader of some 135 black Pentecostal churches in Arkansas,”my bishop.” The two men have laughed, cried, worshiped and eaten barbecued ribs together ever since Clinton’s first term as governor of Arkansas.”He just made himself one of the brethren,”said Lindsey, prelate of Arkansas’ Second Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).”It wasn’t nothing artificial and it wasn’t a strain. It’s just a part of him.” If Lindsey is an example of Clinton’s rapport with individual African-American Christians, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in the nation’s capital is a symbol of his link with the institutional African-American church.

On the morning of Jan. 20, shortly before he is sworn in for a second term, Clinton will be welcomed back to the historic African-American church where his first inaugural prayer service was held in 1993.”We are honored that we are able to host the president’s prayer service for the second time,”said the Rev. Louis-Charles Harvey, pastor of the church that once was a stop for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.”There’s a tradition in the black church that you’re a visitor only once and when you come a second time, you’re a member and friend.” Over the years, President Clinton has fashioned a formidable friendship and spiritual connection with African-American church leaders. There is an ease he has in their services _ with the rhythm of gospel music and the cadence of the sermons _ that is not apparent with most white politicians. And, in return, he has won the high praise and political support of many well-known African-American Christians.


Clinton observers cite a number of reasons for the unique rapport the president has with this segment of his constituency. From his roots as a humble Southern Baptist to his longtime participation in meetings of the black Pentecostal church, Clinton appears to find solace in black theology and worship.

Indeed, one of the highest compliments that could be paid a president by a black church leader was uttered by COGIC Presiding Bishop Chandler David Owens at a May 1996 annual meeting of women from his denomination.”President Clinton,”Owens said,”is a man that was just born white, but on the inside, he’s a brother.” (BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

Months later, Owens hasn’t changed his mind:”He seems to be so comfortable among blacks and he identifies with us, we identify with him.” Clinton has been so at ease with African-Americans that he took the risk of speaking on an issue close to the heart of the black community _ black-on-black crime _ at an annual meeting of COGIC.

Speaking in 1993 at Mason Temple, the same Memphis pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last sermon, Clinton declared,”The freedom to die before you’re a teen-ager is not what Martin Luther King lived and died for.” Owens said Clinton managed to address the problem without being insensitive.”Every minister in there knew that he was telling the truth and they applauded him for that,”recalled Owens.”Sometimes politicians have a lizard complex. They run real fast and change colors on whatever (issue) they find themselves. This man, during that speech, remained true blue straight through the speech.” (END FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

Clinton, who often frequents black church conventions and worship services, has continued to make black church concerns a priority.

Last year, after black and white church leaders brought the spate of arsons at mostly rural, African-American Southern churches to his attention, Clinton urged enhanced law enforcement and increased religious and racial tolerance to prevent further blazes. And earlier this month, when Clinton welcomed religious leaders to the White House for an interfaith breakfast, there was a significant number of African-Americans around the tables in the State Dining Room.”I think that his recognition of us as just people and the acceptance of that goes a long way with the kind of reciprocal admiration that he gets from the African-American community,”said G. Elaine Smith, the first African-American woman president of the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., who attended the recent breakfast.”I think he genuinely does believe in diversity and thinks that it can work,”she said.

Such concern about diversity also is reflected in the location of the inaugural prayer service, said David Seldin, spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.”The president has a strong desire to reach out to the local community and to all Americans and to be inclusive of every part of our country,”said Seldin.”Obviously, African-Americans are a segment of our population that have been left out for many years. We thought it was extremely important to have a national prayer service at an African-American church,”he said.


Compared to other white politicians, Clinton moves easily in and out of black church settings.”Whether you like the guy or you hate the guy, he’s got something that precious few white politicians have,”said Shaun Casey, a Harvard Divinity School doctoral student who has written about Clinton and religion.”I can’t see Teddy Kennedy walking into that service and looking anything but very stiff and pained. … Jack Kemp can kind of fake it for a couple of hours, but he’s white bread,”he said.

Casey attributes Clinton’s ability to mix easily with African-Americans to three sources: his Southern Baptist upbringing, his Southern roots and his undergraduate training at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school.”If you’ve been raised in that kind of Southern Baptist ethos, you know the Bible, you can talk the Bible and you’ve been exposed to African-American Christians in the South … you communicate scripturally with one another,”said Casey, who also is a minister at the Brookline Church of Christ in Brookline, Mass.

But Casey said Clinton’s connections with black Pentecostals in Arkansas was most significant. When Clinton speaks at Church of God in Christ meetings, he makes a point of recognizing and calling out the names of leaders who are more than mere acquaintances but are, rather, people to whom he gives credit for getting him to the presidency.”You really got the sense that he felt like he was at home,”Casey said of the 1993 Memphis speech at COGIC’s annual convocation.”I think it’s a combination of the music … the biblical tradition that he knows quite well and a sense that this is a part of the electorate that has been with him since the beginning. Blacks in the mid-South have had an attraction and a loyalty to him that he can’t claim with any other demographic group.” The humble roots of the Arkansas native also provide the president with a link to many African-Americans.”We in the South grew up in a community with those whom were called poor whites,”said the Rev. Bennett W. Smith Sr., president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.”President Clinton comes from a very humble beginning.” (BEGIN SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM)

Appearing at a dinner honoring Billy and Ruth Graham upon their receiving the Congressional Gold Medal last May, Clinton recalled how the evangelist’s refusal to speak to a segregated audience at a Little Rock, Ark., crusade in the 1950s was a memory that has stuck with him.

Flo McAfee, a special assistant to Clinton who acts as his liaison with the religious community, recalled when they traveled last June to the rededication of Mount Zion AME Church, a burned church in Greeleyville, S.C.”Getting to this church reminds me of Arkansas, down a dirt road, tucked away,”Clinton told her.

(END SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM)

Although most observers say they see his relations with the African-American church to be more a matter of genuine concern, there are times when political expediency cannot be denied.


At a meeting last spring at the White House with other black religious leaders, Smith, of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, recalled the first words out of Clinton’s mouth:”I cannot win re-election without your help.” Clinton also had a conference call with black ministers a week before the election.”We understand that he generally has a respect for the African-American religion but he is a politician and he never forgets that,”said Smith.”I think that it is politically expedient (for Clinton) to be on friendly terms with the African-American clergy.” Although he doesn’t consider political aims to be an overriding motive in Clinton’s relations with black churches, Bishop Milton Williams, leader of the Mid-Atlantic II District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, said it would be naive to think they aren’t a factor.”I think he recognizes that this is where you find black people,”Williams said.”A lot of the community is in the black church. … You want to reach the black community, you go to the black church.” (STORY MAY END HERE)

There were times in his first term when Clinton may have lost favor with African-American clergy, but for the most part they have stuck by him.”Some of his decisions about welfare reform and some of the statements that were made regarding affirmative action during the election may have given people some pause, but I certainly think that it was for the most part not a reason for abandonment or rejection,”said G. Elaine Smith of the American Baptist Churches.

Flo McAfee, Clinton’s special assistant, said the 1996 election results indicate that the comfort level between Clinton and African-Americans has not declined. In fact, Clinton garnered 84 percent of the black vote in 1996, a slight increase from his 1992 win.

But McAfee insists that Clinton’s ties with black churches is far more than politics in practice.”There’s nothing like a good sermon and some good singing,”she said.”That’s uplifting to him. … He needs and enjoys that to uplift his spirit as much as they enjoy having him there.”

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