Morehouse College disinvites black pastor from graduation for criticizing Obama
Is there any greater blasphemy in the church of academia than criticism of President Obama?
Bryan Preston of the PJ Tatler has the story.
Criticize Obama? That’ll Earn You a Disinvitation from Morehouse College Graduation Ceremonies
Georgia Tipsheet reports on the case of Rev. Kevin Johnson. Unlike Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the Rev. Johnson actually leads a church, Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, PA. Earlier in April Rev. Johnson wrote an editorial in which he criticized President Obama, accusing him of neglecting blacks in cabinet appointments and in his broader political agenda. Johnson compared Obama to previous presidents and accused Obama of moving African-American leadership backwards.
Clinton appointed seven African-American cabinet members, the most of any president in history: Ron Brown as Secretary of Commerce; Mike Espy as Secretary of Agriculture; Hazel O’Leary as Secretary of Energy; Alexis Herman as Secretary of Labor; and Jesse Brown as Secretary of Veteran Affairs. President Clinton also appointed Togo West as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Rodney Slater as Secretary of Transportation.
Compared to Obama, President George W. Bush also had more African-Americans in his cabinet, including the first African-American secretary of state and secretary of education, Colin Powell and Rod Paige, respectively. Bush also appointed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and Alphonso Jackson as secretary of housing and urban development…
That piece ran on April 14. The following day, Rev. Johnson says Morehouse College President John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. called him up about his “untimely” comments regarding the president. Johnson, a Morehouse alum, had been invited to speak at Morehouse’s upcoming graduation ceremonies. He learned a few days after the phone call that he had been replaced. Other prominent alums including several pastors are now calling on Morehouse to honor its original invitation and have Rev. Johnson speak.
Criticize Obama? That’ll Earn You a Disinvitation from Morehouse College Graduation Ceremonies (PJ Media)
Comments
If I were Johnson, given the circumstances, I would refuse any reconsideration offer.
I read Johnson’s editorial and while he is critical of Obama, his criticism is strangely off the mark and also somewhat personal. He devotes a large part of his article to his run-in with Valerie Jarrett. While Obama has fewer black cabinet members that his predecessors, that’s not what’s affecting the lives of the black community. Make every Obama cabinet member black and the problems remain. He says he wants black people to be in the “driver’s seat.” There are lots of areas of the country where Mr. Johnson’s fellow blacks are in the driver’s seat. Can we say Detroit?
Is the black agenda that different than the agenda for the rest of the American people? The Obama economic agenda has been a disaster for almost all Americans. I say almost all because some of Obama’s cronies have made hundreds of millions on his crony capitalist deals.
He complains about the black unemployment rate being higher today than when Obama was inaugurated. Well, yes. People at the bottom of the economic ladder usually suffer most when a government pursues bad economic policies. An Obama administration that actually focused on, and encouraged, job creation in the private sector where most of the jobs are would help blacks the most. If you read Johnson’s article you will not have any idea where Mr. Johnson would drive this car he referred to earlier if he were in the driver’s seat.
Johnson supported Obama in the last two elections and helped him get the nomination in 2008, beating off the effort of Hillary Clinton. But then he tells a whopper.
“I supported then-Senator Obama not because he was Black, but because I truly believed in my heart that he was the best candidate to empathize, understand, and develop policies to help the African-American community, the poor, and previously under-represented communities.”
That’s nonsense on stilts. Why do black leaders continue to lie about this? Obama’s skin color had everything to do with his support in the black community. Because there is absolutely nothing in Obama’s past record to indicate he was any good at governing or helping people of any color to better themselves. His previous record, for example the Chicago Annenberg Challenge school experiment that he and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers worked on, is notable for failure.
Read in full, Mr. Johnson comes off as wanting people who he refers to as “kissed by nature’s sun” to steer the country’s economy, but leaves off the direction that taking the wheel would take us. Before handing control over to Mr. Johnson I would like to know where he wants to go and how he wants to get there. The people who voted for Obama made the mistake of not asking those questions. Before we get behind his critics like Mr. Johnson we should be very careful.
Spot on the Money (sorry, couldn’t help myself). The Black community has been sold on the fiction that anything that benefits an individual Black person is somehow a benefit for all. As a result, you see cities like Detroit and Memphis where poor Blacks can have plenty of pride that their Mayor and city council look like them, but the only material benefit is for those at the top. It doesn’t matter if the crooked politician is White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Martian, you’re still getting screwed.
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