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Miami, FL -- Flanked by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton Sen. John Kerry Sunday visited two black churches in battleground Florida, seeking to quell growing dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party by African Americans over what is seen as a soft position on gay marriage.
At Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City Kerry told the congregation he wasn't
there to preach -- but as Sharpton handed him a Bible, Kerry launched |
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into a stump speech brimming with Biblical references as he attacked the Bush Administration on a raft of issues from affordable housing, to health care and education.
"When I look around this country, I see a whole bunch of people who talk about faith, I see a whole bunch of people who put it out there, but I see an awful lot of deeds undone," Kerry said.
"What's on the ballot is the American dream, what's on the ballot is what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton marched for," he said, modifying his campaign stump speech to include the civil rights figures. "We have an unfinished march in this nation."
To win Florida Kerry must take the minority vote -- blacks, Hispanics, Jews, and gays.
But, it is gay marriage which Republicans have used as a wedge to pry black votes from Kerry.
That prompted a warning to church members from Jesse Jackson.
Jackson told worshippers their political concerns are issues that touch their everyday lives, not gay marriage.
"I see disturbing signs today that some of our churches have been confused by wolves in sheep's clothing," Jackson said.
"How did someone else put their agenda in the front of the line?"
He asked congregants to raise their hands if they had faced job discrimination, had a family member with cancer, in jail or were in need of a "liveable wage."
Hands went up throughout the church. But when he asked if they had a family member married to someone of the same sex, the congregants only looked at each other and some tittered.
Not a single hand went up.
"Then how did that get in the middle of the agenda?" Jackson asked.
"I see disturbing signs today that some of our churches have been confused by wolves in sheep's' clothing."
"November 2, the power is in your hands, hands that once picked cotton," Jackson said.
It was a theme picked up on by Sharpton: "Everything we have fought for, marched for, gone to jail for -- some died for -- could be reversed if the wrong people are put on the Supreme Court."
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