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Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., pastor of Hope Christian Church, a 3,500-member charismatic congregation in Lanham, Maryland, has become one of the leading voices in an emerging movement of black religious conservatives. His High Impact Leadership Coalition has mobilized thousands of black evangelicals to "protect the moral compass of America." Last year, he introduced his ambitious "Black Contract with America on Moral Values," targeting such issues as same-sex marriage and abortion (which he calls black genocide). His goal is 1 million signatures by 2008.

While some traditional black leaders are critical of his conservative message, National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard told Religion News Service last year, "He's building a bridge between white evangelicalism and African American evangelicalism that we haven't had in 20 years."

CT editor at large Edward Gilbreath recently spoke to Bishop Jackson.

You're a registered Democrat who pastors a predominantly black church, yet you're now a leading voice for conservative causes. What happened?

I voted for President Bush, but here in Maryland—a primarily Democratic state—in order to vote in the primaries that affect the election, you need to be a Democrat. That's where I started. Over time, however, I've found that I have very little in common with the Democratic Party in terms of national moral values issues. Still, being able to say I'm a registered Democrat disarms many of the people who want to write me off as an "Oreo" or an "Uncle Tom."

How do you convince African Americans that Republicans can care about their issues?

I tell them that one party has taken us for granted, because they feel like we've got nowhere else to go. And if the other party thinks that you're never going to vote for them anyway, then they're not going to prioritize any legislation around your issues. So we wind up being patronized by one group and ignored by the other.

There are a whole lot of black Christians who may not be Republicans but who share similar moral values. So I appeal to the fact that more than 2 million black babies have been lost to abortion over the last four years and that over 70 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers. The Democrats are not doing anything about those issues.

Is converting blacks to the Republican Party part of your mission?

Heavens no! I love the moral values of the Republican Party on some issues, but I still think the party needs to be reformed—just like the Democrats. It can do better on issues like education, justice reform, and health care. I'm with the Republican Party right now for a reason, based on an agenda. But my greatest prayer would be that the Democratic Party would come back from the precipice of moral madness and that there would be people from both parties whom we could count on to stand for good things. Recently, I was with some politicians at a press conference who were for the Marriage Amendment. One of them was Sanford Bishop, a Democratic representative from Georgia who's a part of the Congressional Black Caucus. He came out and said, "I don't like the season in which this Marriage Amendment stuff is being brought up; it's clearly political. But I'm going to stand for what's right, in season or out of political season."

Some analysts believe black Christians in Ohio and Florida helped give Bush the winning margin. Do you see those numbers growing?

I do think there's an overall gain potential still on the table, but we've had a bit of a slowdown. Hurricane Katrina gave voice to a lot of concerns, and it gave some sense of validity to the skeptics who said, "I'm not going to drink that Kool-Aid." Even those who thought Republicans had some good points felt they couldn't quite trust them yet. But with black Republican candidates like Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele running for U.S. Senate here in Maryland and Ken Blackwell running for governor in Ohio, I think the momentum can be recaptured.

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November 2006, Vol. 50, No. 11