Black faith leaders from around the country are calling for an end to the Israel-Gaza war with an urgent message to President Joe Biden and Democratic leadership that inaction could cost them Black voters.
According to The New York Times, a coalition of 1,000 Black pastors has launched a multi-tiered effort on behalf of their congregations, calling for a cease-fire and the release of Palestinian hostages in Gaza. In a letters, ads and meetings with the White House, the pastors reportedly put Democrats in Washington on notice about where they stand on the issue.
The Black faith leaders said their congregations feel a connection between the Palestinians’ struggle in the region and their fight for civil rights in the United States, and they are growing impatient with the president’s support for Israel. According to NBC News, an overwhelming 70 percent of all voters ages 18 to 34, disapprove of the way Biden is handling the war.
That frustration is even more concerning, considering some Black voters are questioning what the administration has done for them and have considered throwing their support behind a Republican nominee. Recent polling from The New York Times and Siena College showed that Black support for President Trump was at 22 percent in six battleground states, a stat that could make Biden’s reelection campaign even more challenging.
“Black faith leaders are extremely disappointed in the Biden administration on this issue,” Rev. Timothy McDonald, the senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, told The New York Times. “We are afraid. And we’ve talked about it — it’s going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden.”
President Biden’s recent address at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston was also infamously interrupted by protestors calling for the him to do more about the Israel-Gaza war.
Rev. Frederick D. Haynes, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas and the president and chief executive of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition adds that President Biden’s position doesn’t match the message that got Black voters to turn out for him in 2020.
“What they are witnessing from the administration in Gaza is a glaring contradiction to what we thought the president and the administration was about,” he told The New York Times. “So when you hear a president say the term, ‘redeem the soul of America,’ well, this is a stain, a scar on the soul of America. There’s something about this that becomes hypocritical.”