Yeah, the jokes on "Bishop" E.W. Jackson's name keep coming, but not
without reason:
Right
Wing Watch:
According to Tea Party Nation, "the future of conservative
movement" is found in a candidate who believes gay people are "sick" and
"degenerate" and that Planned Parenthood is worse than the Ku Klux Klan. In an email today, the group's president Judson
Phillips said that E.W. Jackson is under criticism because his anti-gay
comments "are popular in the black community" and "that shocks and offends
liberals."
Here are some of the ideas that E.W. Jackson has floated
around in speeches and to the media:
- The idea that Barack Obama is a Christian is
laughable
- Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black
lives than the KKK ever was.
- Christians, Blacks and the Godly must exodus from the
Democratic Party
- African-Americans won't vote for President Obama
(said before the 2012 election)
- The repeal of DADT was "...a disaster of epic
proportions."
Being an evangelical Southern
Baptist "bishop", of course, has led him to believe that gays are
mostly pedophiles, are posed to "sexualize" American children at an
early age and "homosexuality is killing black men by the thousands with
HIV.
Needless to say, NOM (National Organization for Marriage - "drive a wedge
between the black and gay communities") loves him.
The Last Gasp?
"Ronald
Reagan used to say that the 11th commandment was to not speak ill of a fellow
Republican.
That commandment has now been modified to permit it if that fellow Republican
is a Christian conservative. - Star
Parker
Perhaps Virginia's own Pat
Robertson had something to do with it: E.W. Jackson won the Republican vote as
nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and will be on the November ballot.
He sounds a little like Robertson in his statements about gays and Obama - not
as winsome and sage, of course - so he appeals to the Christian Right's
good-ole-boy crowd and to crowned heads of Southern Baptist blacks. His
"ministry" and its background is also convoluted enough to confuse
people into credibility: he "studied" at Harvard Divinity School,
obtained his "Bishop" title from vague sources (not the usual,
traditional denominations), but his background as a lawyer (online professor,
Stayer University) did not overshadow his ministry (Exodus Faith
Ministries).
His last foray into politics - for the U.S. Senate in 2011 - garnered a
whopping 5% in the primary.
After the "autopsy" of the Republican Party, it seems that some party
members have not taken the hint that an uber-Christian Right candidate -
although black - does not constitute "diversity", nor does it mean
"reaching out to blacks". It just means that it is kow-towing to the
Christian Right as usual.
Melissa
Harris-Perry of MSNBC got it
right when she rhetorically penned a letter to Jackson:
You
see, you've got it all wrong. Your choice to join the Republican Party doesn't
make you more free or independent than black people who choose to be Democrats.
It just makes you really good at figuring out how to stand out in a radical
right base that's devoid of diversity.
But more than that--the gig you're going for is but a step
away from the most powerful position in a crucial swing state that can turn the
tide of national elections. Which is why my feelings about you emerging
victorious in November's election are best summed up by your 2009 tweet in response to LGBT Pride
Month: "Well that just makes me feel ikky all over. Yuk!"
With the success of marriage
equality in twelve states, and the decision of the Boys Scouts to allow gay
scouts, the Christian Right is feeling the heat of a progressive society and,
with people like E.W. Jackson it is trying to claw its way back to the top of
the Republican roster of influence. Will it win in Virginia?
Eeew!
1
