Pat Robertson: One of the greatest challenges
facing the Bush administration is the issue of race relations.
The last election showed differences between black and white
voters and these often carry over into the church. With us today
is a well-known figure, a pastor, and an author who is committed
to helping the nation heal its divisions. Wellington Boone is
Senior Pastor of the Father's House in Atlanta and author of
the book "Breaking Through." Wellington, once again, it is a
pleasure to have you back.
Wellington Boone: Thank you, Pat. I enjoy
being here.
Pat: We've heard all this business about John
Ashcroft being a racist even though he put more African-American
judges on the bench than any governor in the history of Missouri.
We've heard Bush is a racist. We heard that this was an issue
of disenfranchising black voters and so forth. Talk to us about
that. Is that a Democratic ploy to play the race card or is
it something really behind all this?
Wellington: I don't think there's anything
behind it at all. Often they never do the research to find out
statistics like what you just said. As you know his wife teaches
at Howard University. He's done a lot to really help reach the
black community and show he's not partisan in terms of who he
has around him.
Pat: Jesse Jackson came out so strongly in
south Florida. He came out against Ashcroft, just blasted him,
and then within a week he comes out and says, I fathered child
out of wedlock after many years of marriage. Is the black church
saying, "Way to go Jesse? We're all behind you"? Are they saying
he should step down?
Wellington: He stepped down for four days.
They started talking about replacing him and all of a sudden
he got back on the scene, before the man could really have a
chance to admit what he did. Then, of course, it's going to
take healing, relationally with his wife and before God. And
he will need to establish trust again in the black community
and in the nation. I don't believe he's had enough time to do
that. I actually think he should step down because political
expediency is not more important than true relationship, both
with us and his own family.
Pat: He brought the lady to the White House,
but he was counseling Clinton in his extramarital affairs while
this was going on in his own life. It seems terribly hypocritical.
Wellington: It's obviously hypocritical. I
know the Lord is going to raise up a whole new group of leaders,
Pat, who are going to really walk their talk -- they're already
on the scene. I think it's good now that we hold even black
leaders to a place of accountability where their relationships
in their families are strong and where they're talking on the
outside publicly, they can be examples of what they're talking.
Pat: President Bush has appointed Colin Powell
as the first Secretary of State in the history of the nation,
Condoleezza Rice as National Security Advisor, the Secretary
of Education is an African-American and yet people are saying
he's a racist. How do we get over this rhetoric so we can bring
about reconciliation?
Wellington: I think he's sent the right signals.
He's making some great choices. I think black people, those
of us who believe in the man, who trust the man need to say
more publicly that we do. We need to encourage the black community
to get behind the president and to look at what he's actually
doing and don't distrust him at first. He's showing the things
that we need to have. He has right principles and he's making
the right choices. We need to stop the rhetoric.
Pat: It's almost like the black community
is a vessel, if you will, of the Democratic Party. It seems
that the leaders won't let anybody think about anybody in any
other party. How do you stop that? We're not going to have reconciliation
if one group says we're rigid in what we want to do.
Wellington: I think, first of all, some of
them need to really be trained. I think he needs to continue
to bring those groups around him to give him input into the
things that he needs in terms of reaching the black community.
I do think he needs to probably have more public relations as
it relates to his heart and the things he's doing. I think also
what he's done in terms of bringing those guys around him, particularly
that pastor who prayed there at the end of the inauguration,
he has really submitted to that man in terms of allowing him
to have input. We like those kinds of things and those create
good signals.
Pat: What specifically policy-wise should
he do? If you're not for affirmative action, you're bad or something.
What policy things should he do to send a signal to the black
community, "I'm your friend. I want to bring healing"?
Wellington: I think he can involve the private
sector. There's a beginning of the phase out of welfare. I think
there are certain things he can do in terms of helping those
mothers who now have to get jobs be able to have daycare and
those kind of things. Those things would be a positive signal.
I think if he also allowed for more tax breaks for some of those
people who have to pay for daycare, those things will help not
only whites, but help blacks as well.
Pat: The black community will respond to that?
Wellington: They will respond to that.
Pat: So leaders have got to come out and say
it's a great thing and it will help the black community?
Wellington: Some of those people have their
own agendas. I believe, Pat, that some of the agendas of some
of the liberals do not relate to the prosperity of the black
community. You mentioned Planned Parenthood. Their founder wanted
to sterilize black males.
Pat: Right.
Wellington: That's what she wanted to do.
It's an incredible thing. And we have not looked into the research
to find out, these people are not for us. They couch it in this
language that makes us think they're for us, but the whole idea
is to slow down the birth rate of the unfit, so-called men in
the black community. So therefore, it's time for us now to wake
up and say, no, no, we're not going to buy into one political
group. We're going to see who is standing for truth -- and to
us, you know, that means the Bible. That means Jesus. But it
also means that we're not going to abort these babies.
Pat: I hope that you have a platform with
the new administration. Wellington Boone has written this book
with a forward by Bill McCartney. We always appreciate you,
Wellington. You're a great guy. God bless you.
Wellington: Thank you.
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