By David W. Marshall
Washington Informer
https://www.washingtoninformer.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 told the paper that Obama explained how he struggled with the decision, and several voiced their disapproval. The call was a quiet effort by the president to control potential political damage from his controversial announcement.
Black churches were conflicted in their reactions. Some were silent. At other churches, pastors spoke against the president’s decision — but spoke kindly of the man himself. While some were outraged, a minority of pastors spoke favorably while expressing understanding of the president’s change of heart. African Americans were a key voting bloc. During the 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 Obama, traditionally most are socially conservative on gay marriage. Overall, many Black pastors said they would still support the president in the 2012 election even though they might disagree on this issue.
The gay marriage announcement highlighted several things. First, there exists a segment within the Black church that is progressive on racial and economic equality, justice and fairness while remaining conservative on abortion and gay marriage. This stripe of Christian faith never aligned itself completely with conservative or progressive evangelicals. It is a group passionate about racial and economic equality because it directly affects their personal well-being and safety, and that of their families and communities. Second, it showed that most Black Christians who previously supported Obama continued to do so despite deep disagreement over a major social issue. Despite conservative beliefs, if a candidate fights for overall equality, justice and fairness critical to the daily lives of people of color, the candidate’s stance on gay marriage was not the deal-breaker it would be for Religious Right voters.
As we reflect on the life of former President Jimmy Carter, we are reminded he was 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 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 favored specific legislation Carter believed infringed on the separation of church and state, such as a proposed constitutional amendment banning abortion and an attempt to restore prayer in public schools.
He did not campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade, and he was a feminist who appointed more women to his administration than any previous president. Carter supported the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed constitutional change 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 fellow white evangelicals and the Moral Majority abandoned him for reelection. They supported his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, who received an estimated 56% of the evangelical vote in 1980. These voters didn’t just turn from Carter — they turned from part of their tradition, historians say.
Carter represented a 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, says Randall Balmer, author of “Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter.” As a white evangelical, Carter didn’t fit with the likes of Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority. “He had no problem being identified as a progressive evangelical,” says Balmer, who recounts 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 afterward. Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for decades of efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and advance democracy and human rights. During his post-presidency, he promoted racial reconciliation and collective healing within the Baptist church. In 2006, Carter joined with Mercer University President Bill Underwood to bring together Baptists of different races and ethnicities, regions, backgrounds and theological perspectives in an informal alliance. A year later, the New Baptist Covenant was formed. According to the Rev. Mitch Randall, CEO of Good Faith Media, “It was President Carter’s lifelong dream to put Baptists together who had been divided.” With his passing, it is our hope his dream is fulfilled.
Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America.”
