THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040228
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL SHEPARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 89 lines
Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed - a messiah for blacks?
The notion was floated by the Rev. Lawrence Haygood, a black minister from Tuskegee, Ala., as the Chesapeake-based coalition unveiled its new urban outreach program.
``We in the black community have looked for a leader in a black form. But he did not show up in a black form,'' Haygood said at a coalition news conference last week. ``He has come in a white form, in the image of Ralph Reed.''
But while Haygood described Reed in terms more typically reserved for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., the group's effort to engage black
America is being met with intense skepticism from many in the civil rights field.
The Rev. Otis Moss Jr., a Cleveland minister who is civil rights chairman of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, said, ``I'm careful not to judge anyone's motives, but the Christian Coalition has been more interested in finding its place in the Republican Party than in the body of Christ.
``I believe in redemption, but I think we should wait and see exactly what the Christian Coalition brings to the table,'' Moss said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday: ``Ralph Reed has come bearing gifts and making promises, but they can't use some gestures and money to lure us from real needs. They want to get involved in terms that fit their right-wing political agenda.''
Jackson saw a ``contempt and arrogance'' for civil rights leaders in Reed's failure to consult black leadership about the coalition's foray into urban activism.
At a Washington news conference last week and in a full-age ad in The Washington Post on Monday, the coalition laid out a legislative agenda that includes a call for Congress to approve scholarships for children in 100 of the poorest school districts to attend private schools.
Called ``The Samaritan Project,'' the plan also would have families take up residence in poor urban areas.
Critics have called the scholarship proposal a dressed-up voucher system to shift public money to private schools. And the notion of urban missionaries is troubling to some.
``My main problem with that is they view the African-American community as a mission field, and we as a people have had mixed results with missions,'' said Harold McDougal, legislative director of the NAACP. ``Missionaries don't always come to listen, they come to preach with an agenda.''
Though the coalition has spent thousands of dollars to promote the candidacies of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., former Senate candidate Oliver North, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other conservative Republicans, Reed said the coalition will be more accepting of minorities in the future.
``I don't deny that religious conservatives haven't been (involved in the black community) in the past. We are changing that,'' Reed said in an interview.
He said the burning of black churches, mostly in the South, spurred the shift in the coalition's objectives.
``One could argue it was divine intervention or that it was a coincidence,'' Reed said. ``But it was the church burnings that told us we have fellow believers out there and they are in trouble. There is no reason not to help them.
``Once we built that relationship, it was like a whole new world to us,'' Reed said. ``Suddenly we were hugging and praying and saw we had a lot in common.''
Yvonne Scruggs, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum Inc., a coalition of 21 civil rights organizations, remains unconvinced of Reed's sincerity.
Scruggs pointed out that the Federal Election Commission sued the coalition last year, charging that the group improperly aided Republican candidates through the distribution of voter guides and other activities. The suit is pending.
Since blacks are overwhelmingly Democratic, she said, adding blacks could change the image of the coalition as an appendage of the Republican Party.
``I'm outraged that . . . under the guise of Christianity and interest in doing something for poor people they would advance this,'' Scruggs said. ``It's a nonsubtle political move.''
The coalition, founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, claims 1.7 million members nationwide. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[Jesse Jackson]
KEYWORDS: CHRISTIAN COALITION