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| GEORGE: Looking for support |
For
it was the Catholic Conference of Illinois that arranged for the head of the Catholic
Archdiocese to meet Friday with several black clergy members. Those include
James Meeks – the one-time state senator who gave up his political post last
year to return to being merely the head of one of the largest congregations in
Chicago.
IT
IS AN impressive figure that Meeks can offer up – his Salem Baptist Church in
the Roseland neighborhood can claim 10,000 members and often get that many
people packed into their church for Sunday services.
Yet
there are times when I wonder if the real truth is that he has about 10,000
people willing to listen to him – out of the many billions of people who live
on Planet Earth!
A
part of me has that thought reinforced by the notion that Meeks originally
thought he was going to be a political powerbroker on the Springfield scene who
would be able to offer his orders to other politicians.
Perhaps
he thought he had the word of God within him?
HIS
STINT IN the Illinois Senate wound up being more forgettable than anything
else. Even though he always talked about himself as being the next governor or
next mayor or whatever. Instead, he’s just a neighborhood preacher.
And
no, it wouldn’t have made any difference if Meeks were still in the state
Senate. For the legislator who replaced Meeks (state Sen. Napoleon Harris,
D-Flossmoor) didn’t vote for the bill – but it still passed there back on
Valentine’s Day.
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| MEEKS: Ego bigger than influence? |
In
fact, George met with several neighborhood preachers from across the South Side
on Friday. I don’t doubt they have sway within their congregations. And that
piecing those congregations could create a sizable group.
Yet
this is an issue where I seriously wonder if the black-oriented churches are
going to wind up cutting themselves off from the mainstream of thought – that is
now seeing that this whole issue of who can marry and who cannot is really
nothing more than a matter of letting all people have the same opportunity
within life.
WHEN
I HEAR of people making sayings that somehow imply their religion forbids this,
it makes me think that they’re the types who want to use people’s religious
faith to turn against others who aren’t exactly like them.
That
thought bothers me more than anything. It almost seems like self-segregation –
although I realize how “loaded” that phrase can be in this particular context.
Earlier
this week while on duty for a suburban newspaper for which I write, I covered
an event in which a political candidate who was African-American kept saying
the only reason that people were paying so much attention to the concept of gay
marriage these days was because of the gay rights lobby. (I’m not naming him
because he’s a fringe candidate with no chance of Election Day success come
Tuesday).
He
said they’re simply better organized than the network of clergy and civil
rights activists have become in the 21st Century. As though there’s
no way the issue could have any merits on its own.
THESE
ARE THE same clergy, by the way, who are going about calling up Illinois
General Assembly members to try to sway/pressure/intimidate them into not
backing a gay marriage measure when it comes up for a vote this spring in the
Illinois House of Representatives.
Now,
we get the sight of the black clergy pairing up with the head of the Catholic
church in Chicago – all to ratchet up the political pressure to get House
members to vote “no.”
Back
in the days of old, we used to get the sight of civil rights activists in
protest marches, with a few white, Catholic priests at their side to show
solidarity.
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| The modern-day pairing takes on a different ideological lean these days |
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