Pro-life black pastors wary of Obama

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By Julia Duin

Conservative black pastors nationwide are caught between irreconcilable opposites - congregations that overwhelmingly favor Sen. Barack Obama versus their personal doubts about the Illinois Democrat's politics, particularly on abortion.

"It's a theological contradiction, from the Christian perspective, to be excited about Obama," said the Rev. Levon Yuille, pastor of the 100-member Bible Church in Ypsilanti, Mich. "Very few black pastors have problems supporting Obama because they are fixated on this race thing."

"The congregations are pro-Obama. My congregation is saying Obama is the lesser of two evils," said Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, a 3,000-member majority black congregation.

"When I say that on third-term abortions, Obama has no conscience, they say [Sen. John] McCain and [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton] weren't great examples of morality either."

The Rev. John W. Stephenson, pastor of Heirs Covenant Church, a 300-member church in West Chester, Ohio, said he has to "educate" his members regularly.

"People say, 'This is an opportunity that will never come again for our people,' " he said. "I say, 'Yes, we are African-Americans, but we are also Christians."

Several pastors interviewed said they have had to work overtime to tutor their flocks about Mr. Obama's views, especially on abortion, which has disproportionately affected blacks. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group, black abortion rates are three times that of whites and twice that of Hispanics.

As an Illinois state senator, Mr. Obama voted against the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a bill that protected babies who survive abortions. Last year, the senator condemned the Supreme Court's ban on partial-birth abortion.

"Obama I am afraid of," said the Rev. Kim Daniels, pastor of the 400-member Spoken Word Ministries in inner-city Jacksonville, Fla. "I have a problem of people voting for him because he is black. Some of our African-American preachers are so excited to see someone who looks like them even though they are not getting someone who believes like them.

"But my life as a black person does not mean more than my life as a believer. I am voting for that baby that never gets to vote," she said.