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Cedar Street hosting Al Sharpton this Tuesday
10/07/2012 4:23 PM by John M
The king of race baiting in our midst. What a honor! This man doesn’t just play the race card, he’s got a whole deck with nothing but race cards.
Few people have done more to set back the chances of America ever becoming a color-blind nation more than Reverend Al. And he’s made a killing for himself by doing so…
It’s about ‘yo mama’!
@ Alex – so true!
Well isn’t this exactly what we need …… another hater promoting more racism…..Rev Al stirring the pot again as only he knows how.
And if you want to park within 8 blocks of your home tonight you better get home by 2 PM. And I’m sure Cedar St will be rolling out the “security” goons and racing around with the 4 wheelers.
I wonder how much the chuch had to pay out for him to visit?
How can a church run (what I suspect will be) a heavily partisan event without jeopardizing its tax status? Rev. Al only goes one way politically so if this is anything more than a pep rally for OB, I’d be surprised. But it was my understanding that churches were supposed to stay out of politics.
Will they be inviting the “God Hates Obama” lady for balance?
He spreads hate and racism every time he opens his mouth.
I wonder how much it costs to get him to appear for something like this. Probably half of the entire church’s annual budget. Seems like money could be better spent, but I guess thats the congregation’s business.
I’m hoping one of the 100 lost pit bulls roaming Church Hill makes a visit to the God hates Obama Lady.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/09/5/sharpton-richmond-mayor-deliver-get-out-the-vote-m-ar-2270713/
According to the papers headline it was clearly a “Rally for Obama” which would seriously violate the church’s tax exempt status.
Why all the hate and second guessing?
If you read the RTD article, then you’ll see that the topic of the event was educational in nature (i.e. voting rights). An educational message does not jeopardize the 501c3 status of a non-profit organization.
Did any of you bother to attend last night’s event at Cedar Street Baptist Church? You would have been welcomed.
I’m happy that lots of people come to our neighborhood on a regular basis to worship and exchange ideas. Cedar Street Baptist Church of God does a lot of good for this community, and IMO, is a good neighbor. I’m happy their parishioners choose to keep their church in Union Hill.
Elaine,
Are we so naive to believe that this event involved an actual “exchange of ideas”?…I’m pretty sure there was not a Romney rep there to provide an “exchange”. This was a pure and simple attempt to get a congregation to vote as a block, to steer it one particular way. (This happens on both sides, in all geographic areas, in most churches.) The church leaders (and others) realize their influence on the flock…this is clearly “political” speech, not religious. Let’s just call it as it really is.
In a church/religious environment, it begs the question: “Who would Jesus vote for?” I think it would be a toss up…depending on which church you go to. Just pray that Jesus got his voter’s ID card in the mail, in time for the election. Please note, mail delivery in Church/Union Hill is often suspect : )
@11 – I fully support voting rights. As does just about everyone. Since I don’t think anyone is challenging voting rights so this raises the question of why we’d need a voting rights rally?
If by voting rights, you mean having to show ID to reduce fraud, is that really an issue? You can’t do anything without an ID. I would think that the bigger issue worth investing this energy in would be getting those folks IDs, not lowering the security of our voting process. Why are we not picketing in front of DMV to tell them to shorten their lines?
When you see that the messenger they have chosen is a notorious race monger who has made a career out of stirring up fake hatred where there is none and in the process has set back race relations, then people get really suspicious.
The T-D article makes it clear enough with the headline – this was a Team Obama surrogate selling his man. The fact that he uses racial divisiveness that isn’t there in his sales pitch is despicable (even for those of us that aren’t Republicans). Some of us just find it unnerving that we could have a political process that is unsecured and is wide open for voter fraud.
Sadly, I suspect if allegations start popping up that the Republican party is planning to exploit the lack of voter ID laws to their benefit, the players on the sides of this battle might change.
I make no judgments on the church for hosting and personally feel that they should be able to do whatever they want but this is not an “educational message” if we are being honest with ourselves. Just wanted to be sure that was clear.
@9 – good to see that tolerance is alive and well in America…
Elaine – I believe the hating is centered on the speaker, not the topic of the event. Personally I think the new voting rules are ridiculous, but I also think Al Sharpton has a huge bias that he carries with him, so to say it is merely a forum on a certain topic with no particular spin on it is not realistic if he is involved. However I did not attend, so I could be wrong, but justified or not Sharpton represents to a many number of Americans a serious road block to a lot of the racial progress going on right in our own community and nationwide. I’m sure a lot of the people in attendance found something of value in having him there, or else they would not have done it, I’ve just personally never had much use for his approach to our admittedly difficult racial problems still existing in America.
The paper billed it as an rally for Obama. And if speakers there endorse either candidate, as mayor jones clearly did, it is no longer non partisan.
Wonder what the turnout would have been had the baptists invited Thomas Sowell to speak.
@17 – might be nice to have an open discussion for once instead of lining the folks up and telling them what to think.
Hey, Alex…when I read or hear news I’m convinced most people need to be told what to think. Kind of scary.
ann,
What is really scary (but kinda cool) is that there are actually a Bible-carrying Baptists who would actually vote for a pro-choice & pro-marriage equality candidate. And these folks worship here in Union Hill! Hmmm….”makes me wanna holler”.
A media headline today touts our president’s recent consultation wilh Al Sharpton to discuss how to avoid the fiscal cliff. So, our recently elected president turns to non-economists to solve a fairly crucial economic situation the country faces…and then leaves for a public relations trip. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.