By Mary Mostert, Analyst , Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
February 23, 2000
Every since George Bush spoke at Bob Jones University he has been condemned by much of the media for speaking there. The University opposes both interracial dating and labels both the Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as "cults." Amazingly, it has become a major issue in this year’s Presidential primaries. Republican Congressman Peter King of New York has switched to supporting John McCain because, as a Catholic, he was terribly offended that George W. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University.
Oddly, no one has mentioned the fact that Alan Keyes, who is both a black and a Catholic, also spoke at Bob Jones University. And, he delivered a message to his audience which flowed easily from his message about "That premise which is writ large on the first page of our history, put there by Founders who understood that even though it was a truth by which they, themselves, would be condemned, it was the only truth on which liberty and self-government could be soundly based. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’"
Alan Keyes delivered a polite, but a powerful message to the 6000 students and faculty of Bob Jones University when he said:
"There are folks who don't think I should be talking to Bob Jones University, in fact. You know that, don't you? I hope you understand this. They said I shouldn't come here, because I am a black person, and there are these terrible policies about interracial dating. They said I shouldn't come because I am - I say it with pride and certainty - a Roman Catholic Christian. And that I would not be received in this place, on that account.
"I have, thankfully, put the lie to that by my presence. But I think we are, all of us, enjoined to put the lie to it by what we do, and what we pray for, and how we act, and how we love. For our Lord told us that it is by their fruits that ye shall know them. And if the fruit is the fruit of courage to stand for Christ; if the fruit is the fruit of truth to call our people to salvation, and to call our nation back to its right path and its right home - then we ought not to let any sectarian bigotry, any racial prejudice, stand in the way of the UNITY that Christ represents for ALL Christian people who acknowledge His name, and welcome Him into their life, and into their heart.
"It is for us, as Christian people, to reject religious bigotry, to reject racial bigotry, to stand before America to example that which we are called upon to example - whether we be Americans, whether we be Indians, whether we be Asians, Jews - whatever it is. We are called upon by the Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to go and preach to ALL NATIONS the truth that we stand before the Lord our God, one in His mercy, if we are willing to accept that Christ which is the messenger of His truth, and whose life and whose blood has saved us for our God, by His love.
"If we stand, one in the body of Christ, one in the faith we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ, then we are one indeed, and we can offer to the world a hope and an example of love and purity that they will get from no other source, and find in no other place.
"Do we have the courage to do this? Some folks, I think, chose to come to this platform and not even have the courage to challenge us to do it. But I couldn't do that today."
Now, to me that showed grace, courage and leadership. And, of course, it wasn’t what the president of Bob Jones University really wanted to hear. It is true that the University calls Catholics, and Mormons, "cults which call themselves Christian." Bob Jones, III, states on the University’s website, "A friend of mine who is writing a book asked me and others to list six of the greatest challenges facing Fundamentalists and biblical Christianity in the 21st Century." One of the six challenges listed is: "To stir evangelistic enterprise in fulfillment of the Great Commission. The diminution of evangelistic enterprise to cults which call themselves Christian, including Catholicism and Mormonism, is frightening."
Jones, who must have known when he was invited to speak that Keyes was both black and a Catholic, accused Alan Keyes of having "betrayed his friends at Bob Jones University with an outburst of sanctimonious hypocrisy."
Now, let’s look at the flip side of this coin. Yesterday BOTH Democrat candidates, Al Gore and Bill Bradley not only went to a racist and bigot who, they hoped, would endorse them for president, but promised him they would deliver his requests if he and his followers voted for them.
Al Sharpton was given the honor of asking the very first question yesterday which was:
SHARPTON. Thank you. Tonight we know on March 7 that there will be a primary in New York and California. With the case of police scandal in California, the Diallo case and Louima case in New York, and many cases all between, many in our community have to live in fear of both the cops and the robbers. We are asking you, what concrete steps would you make if you were elected president to deal with police brutality and racial profiling without increasing crime. How would you keep crime down, but at the same time confront the problem of police brutality and racial profiling?"
Both Bill Bradley and Al Gore jumped at the opportunity to assure Sharpton, who has spoken numerous times against Jews, that they would instantly either issue an executive order or have a law passed to make "racial profiling" illegal. Presumably such a law would prohibit the police from issuing a description of a wanted criminal by mentioning his or her race.
Al Sharpton first came to national attention during the 1988 Tawana Brawley hoax, in which he enthusiastically spread the incendiary lie that a black teen-age girl had been assaulted, smeared with feces and raped by a group of white law enforcement officers in upper New York state. That he libeled innocent men and fostered racial enmity seems never to have bothered Sharpton.
In 1991, Sharpton helped stoke the outrage of the black community of Brooklyn's Crown Heights, following the accidental killing of a black child there by a car in the motorcade of the orthodox Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. The days of violence that followed culminated in the street mob-murder of Yankel Rosenbaum.
In 1995, Sharpton in a rally broadcast on WWRL said: "I am serving notice today on a Jewish community, that if you don't stop accusing Reverend Al Sharpton, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Gary Byrd, Reverend Del Shields and Donna Wilson of being anti-Semitic, we will marshal six million black men and women and boycott every Jewish owned business throughout the United States... I am saying to the Jewish community and specifically to Abraham Foxman, that you come out and utter a word, accusatory remark against Reverend Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Donna Wilson, Reverend Shields, or Gary Byrd, we will boycott you and nobody loves money any more than the Jewish people…"We're not going to stand idly by and let a Jewish person come in black Harlem and methodically drive black people out of business. We are going to see that this cracker suffers. Reverend Sharpton is on it."
On Dec. 8, after two months of rhetorical violence in which Sharpton targeted the Jewish owned store which was planning to expand, protestor Roland Smith entered the store armed with a pistol. Screaming "It's on now, all blacks out," Smith opened fire. He set the store ablaze, and then shot himself. Smith killed seven store employees, most of them minorities. Afterward, Sharpton said he had only been seeking to mediate.
Mediate? If that is mediating, I’d hate to see him trying to pick a fight. Did Al Gore or Bill Bradley have the courage to do what Alan Keyes did? No. And, the situation was remarkably similar. At Bob Jones University Alan Keyes, a black man and a Catholic, accepted the offer to speak and gracefully but firmly and politely pointed out to them that their religious bigotry and racism was contrary to the Declaration of Independence and the principles set down by our founding fathers.
Yesterday, two white Democrats running for President were in Haarlem speaking to a black audience and the racist Al Sharpton asked the first question. It was a marvelous opportunity for them to make a point that the kind of lying and race baiting that Al Sharpton does is not in keeping with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But, they didn’t do that. As a matter of fact, Al Gore had the unmitigated gall to totally ignore Alan Keyes statement at Bob Jones University and say, "Neither of the major Republican candidates had the guts to speak out against the Confederate flag over the South Carolina Capitol." Incredible!
Should George Bush and Alan Keyes have gone to Bob Jones University and should Al Gore and Bill Bradley have gone to Haarlem and spoken in a forum in which a racist and religious bigot like Al Sharpton was a leading figure? Yes. They should. But, they should have shown some leadership. Only Alan Keyes showed that leadership. All the others basically followed the lead of the racists and bigots. John McCain wasn’t even in the running on the issue.
Voters who believe racism and religious bigotry are important issues in the campaign really have only one person to vote for - Alan Keyes. He is the only one who has a consistent, logical position on the issue and who has the courage and the leadership skills to say something to the people who need to hear it.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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