2 of 3

Relations between Lynch and Heimlich have been increasingly tense since the riots. Heimlich has asked that Lynch resign or be removed as cochairman of the Cincinnati Community Action Now committee, formed by Mayor Luken after the riots. Heimlich says Lynch cannot be a reconciler at the same time he is engaging in civil disobedience.

Lynch's father, also a minister, has denounced Heimlich, who was not selected for the committee and whose city council term ends in October. "You come off as one of the biggest hypocrites that I have ever seen," the senior Lynch wrote in a fax to Heimlich and other council members. "I have tried my best to work with you over the years, but your record. . . is horrendous."

The younger Lynch won't repeat his father's criticisms, but he is angry. "Phil is the not the devil that some people say," Lynch says, "but he won't be missed."

Heimlich, working out of a spartan government office, under a photo of himself with Muhammad Ali, says he considers the late Martin Luther King Jr. a hero and role model for racial reconciliation. Heimlich has supporters in the black community.

Aaron Greenlea, head of the local African-American Baptist pastors council, says Heimlich has worked to bridge racial divisions in the city. "Phil really reaches out to the African-American community and focuses on some important issues," Greenlea says. "Of course, we don't agree on everything."

Most Christian leaders in Cincinnati can agree on one thing: Costly government programs that "throw money at poverty" have failed.

While Heimlich emphasizes individual character more than Lynch does, they both support long-term, faith-based approaches to character development, entrepreneurship, and education. Both want to create an anti-crime program that improves the professionalism and accountability of the police force. They both seek to provide measurable improvements in the quality of life for poor people.

African Americans make up 43 percent of Cincinnati's 331,000 people. Two-thirds of the city's blacks fall below the poverty line. The jobless rate in greater Cincinnati is 3.5 percent. But in the Over-the Rhine neighborhood, it is about three times higher, around 10 percent.

In an interview with CT, Heimlich placed part of the blame for urban poverty at the feet of the city's civil-rights leaders, saying they ignore the suffering caused by black-on-black crime and social irresponsibility.

Jaws clenched, arms wrapped tightly around himself, he leaned forward to hammer home his point: Corrupt civil-rights leaders broke their promises to build low-income housing. Heimlich notes that a local nonprofit housing program favored by some pastors in the civil-rights establishment took $800,000 of city money but built only one house and repaired a few others. Lynch has added his voice to the call for greater accountability in local social programs.

Eugene Rivers, a cofounder of a nationally acclaimed anti-crime partnership of African-American pastors and Boston police, believes Lynch is an important leader of the first new wave of the post-civil rights-movement black church leadership.

"He is not locked into the old wineskin paradigm of the brand name civil rights leadership," Rivers says of Lynch. "He is much more programmatic and outcome-oriented. He doesn't play to the old cliches, the old race card and victim sweepstakes."

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

July 8 2001, Vol. 45, No. 9