The Black Pastor Not Invited To Meeting

Attorney General Eric Holder held a meeting on Wednesday with a number of African-American religious leaders to discuss ways that they can discuss political issues (and support President Obama) without endangering their tax-exempt status. One of the major issues that they will discuss is Voter ID laws.

Rep. Emanual Cleaver (D-MO) had this to say as reported by the Washington Examiner:

“We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people, and we’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501c3 status with the IRS,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told MSNBC today.

“In fact, we’re going to have the IRS administrator there, we’re going to have the Attorney General Eric Holder there, we’re going to have the lawyers’ organization from around the country, the ACLU — all giving ministers guidance about what they can and cannot do,” he noted.

Cleaver said they would not tell pastors which candidate to support. They will let them know who to regard as the bad guys, though (hint: not Democrats). “We’re going to talk about some of the draconian laws that have cropped up around the country as a result of the 17 percent increase in African American votes,” Cleaver said, describing voter ID laws as a form of Jim Crow-style “poll tax” on seniors and black voters.

One African-American pastor not invited to the meeting was Rev. Kenn Blanchard. NRA News’ Ginny Simone interviewed Kenn about this meeting as well as the attempt to use black clergy to put pressure on Speaker John Boehner over a contempt citation for Eric Holder.

Kenn didn’t hold back in the interview. He described many of those who claim to be “civil rights veterans” as mere opportunists who are not even close to following in MLK’s footsteps. That is pretty powerful stuff!