Politics –
Detroit Church Under Fire
For Trump Invite
When Donald Trump showed up last Saturday to the historically black Great Faith Ministries church in Detroit, Bishop Wayne Jackson came under fire as if he had extended an invitation to the devil himself.
Politics
Flanked by flunkies Dr. Ben Carson and Omarosa Manigault (for black “street cred” purposes), the GOP presidential nominee continued his rather bizarre courting of minority voters by attending and addressing a black congregation of worshippers.
Trump swayed back and forth uncomfortably as he listened to several gospel selections from the choir, then addressed the crowd.
“I fully understand the African-American community has suffered from discrimination,” Trump said while referencing disparities in education, employment, and public safety. He then promised to bring “prosperity” to lower-income Americans. “We need a civil-rights agenda for our time.”
Trump’s tone was uncharacteristically muted and his words were far different from just a few short weeks ago, when he used an all-white rally to deliver a message to black voters, saying “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”
Less than 2% of African-Americans throughout the country support Donald Trump’s candidacy, primarily because of his bigoted references and connections to white supremacists. So, it’s not surprising that Bishop Jackson received a ton of heat from providing Trump the perfect backdrop (that he could use in campaign ads) for his “pretend” outreach to black voters.
Hundreds of protesters lined the streets outside the church for the “admission ticket only” event with Trump. Among the protesters was 69-year-old Thomas Wilson Jr. of Detroit, who said, “The xenophobic guy that started this race last year is the same man that’s coming to this church today.” Yet another protester carried a placard that read “Mr. Hate, Leave My State.”
Lawrence Glass, the president of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity, addressed reporters and demonstrators at a news conference, saying black voters “will not be trumpets to get his message of fear and hate out.”
“He is speaking at a black church, which is not equivalent to speaking to a black church,” Glass added.
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Politics
In response to the controversial event, Bishop Jackson attempted to justify his invitation by saying, “I owe this to my viewers.”
“My phone has been burning up,” he said. “And the things people are asking: ‘Is Donald Trump paying me off?’ They haven’t paid me off. You haven’t looked at me and seen a man who’s needed things I’ve always been blessed. It’s not about being a Judas to my people. I love my people. I feel that we should be better off than what we are. This is not an endorsement. This is engagement, for him to tell us what he wants to do.”
He continued: “Do you think Donald Trump will manipulate the people? Black folks, we’re not stupid. We know when someone is running a game. If anybody knows, we know. And I’m saying, ‘We don’t need a guardian. We don’t need a guardian from one party or the other.’ ”
In an open letter signed by the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity, the Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES), the Michigan chapter of Church of God in Christ (COGIC), local chapters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, as well as a host of other faith-based coalition groups and denominations based in metro Detroit, Trump’s visit was widely criticized. “Racism, bigotry, misogyny, hate speech, sexism, divisiveness, threats, a call to harm, discrimination, bullying, and fear mongering have no place in the White House in the greatest country in the world,” the letter said.
However, Bishop Jackson stood his ground.
“You can’t be afraid to be criticized for making right decisions, for not being politically correct,” he said. “We should all sit down and see what’s going to be the best thing for this country. We should be independent and not go with the crowd but make sure in our hearts of what we’re voting for. When I go into that ballot booth, I vote with my heart and not what somebody told me to vote.”
Ironically, before Trump left the church he was draped with a Jewish prayer shawl as a special gift from Bishop Jackson, which has since created an entirely new controversy among the Jewish community.
Donald Trump’s black church drive-by has posed an interesting question: After adopting a similar “nice” tone in Mexico last week just to deliver a fiery speech against Mexican immigrants only a few hours later, is his nice tone in Detroit the same “wink-and-a-nod” BS as before?
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Keep em coming DJ. You're doing yeoman's work calling out the endless BS related to Trump and his sham candidacy.
About Bishop Jackson:
I don't know anything about the man. Had never heard of him or is church prior to this whole gimmick unfolding. But I will say this though. After listening to Bishop Jackson's so-called reasons for why he extended such an invitation to the likes of David Duke in the body of Donald J. Trump, the term "jack-leg preacher" comes quickly to mind.
In short: Bishop seems like he's a piece of work. And sellouts like Ben Carson and Omarosa Manigault are a dime a dozen – a nickle on Sundays.
Btw- there's also a rather interesting backstory related to Trump's "Black church drive-by."
Over the weekend, CNN reported that the person most responsible for securing an invitation from Bishop Jackson for Trump to speak was Trump supporter, "Pastor Mark Burns – a rather large Black man from South Carolina with a BIG mouth and lots of bile to spew.
Turns out that Mark Burns is also a lying-azz POSEUR in his own right.
And why am I NOT the least bit surprised?/sarc
"Fake Kappa and Pro-Trump Pastor Mark Burns Busted Lying On CNN"
Trump supporting Pastor Mark Burns got called out for his suspect bio on national TV. Actually, suspect is too generous since Burns pretty much lied about (1) the college he graduated from, (2) and the extent of his military service— (3) also he is NOT a member of Kappa Alpha Psi either.
A South Carolina pastor and Donald Trump surrogate who apologized this week after posting a photograph of Hillary Clinton in blackface issued another apology on Friday after CNN revealed that he fabricated many details in his biography.
In a cringe-inducing interview, CNN’s Victor Blackwell pressed Mark Burns to explain those inaccuracies……
Burns, who [HAD} regularly {APPEARED} on cable news on behalf of the GOP nominee, first said the incorrect details on his online bio had been “manipulated” by hackers before claiming that the information was simply “extremely old.”
“I had started the process of being a part of that organization,” he explained when Blackwell asked why there was no evidence to back up his bio's claim that he belonged to the predominantly black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi.
Blackwell pointed to a printout of Burns’ bio from his website, as it appeared when the black televangelist spoke on Trump’s behalf at the Republican National Convention, and asked if it was his.
“It is the bio but this is not an accurate depiction of the bio,” Burns said. “I mean information has obviously been added.”
"Obviously this has been manipulated or either hacked or added," he claimed.
CNN reported that the website that supports Burns’ site said there was no record of a hack.
Burns also tried to argue that the Army Reserves and National Guard were the same program when Blackwell pointed out that there was no record of the six years he claimed to have served in the South Carolina Army Reserves. They are not.
After Blackwell also pointed out that Burns did NOT, as he claimed, obtain a bachelor of science from North Greenville University, the pastor said that the entire on-camera interview was off the record. […..] Talking Points Memo
Victor never agreed to the interview being "off the record" and attempted to get Burns to explain the lies.
Burns panicked, cut the interview short, walked out of his 4-seat church (that's how many chairs he has in his church – FOUR). Burns then got into his own van and drove away. Leaving Victor and the CNN camera crew behind at the church.
I don't understand these black pastors. First what is the point of asking Trump to your church? What can he say for that to make sense? Like DJ said all he is doing is using the church so he can make a commercial and say he reached out to black folk. I wonder if this bishop would bring the head of KKK to the church to speak to?
And yes big butt Mark Burns that guy is a piece of work. Fake fraud phony all the way around. How he is lying about anything if he is supposed to be a minister? I can see now that he jumped on Trump to make a name for himself. Ha like Truth said that four chair church of his ain't about nothing so Trump put him on the map. Either way both of those so called ministers are a sham. I'm glad the other church groups in Detroit got all up in bishop's butt about his Trump show.