NATIONAL
FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE COALITION
FOR
RELEASE 7AM,
FAITH-BASED
COALITION
ENDORSES PRESIDENT BUSH
AFRICAN AMERICAN CLERGY WITH CONGREGATIONS OF THOUSANDS SAY THE PRESIDENT HAS ‘CONSISTENTLY REACHED OUT TO ASSIST WITH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT”
WASHINGTON,
DC, August 20, 2004—A new organization of African American clergy,
whose
congregations across the country consist of more than 150,000, gathered
here
today to endorse President George W. Bush for re-election and to “let
the
country know that the Democratic Party doesn’t necessarily have a lock
on the
Black vote” by announcing the formation of the National Faith Based
Initiative
Coalition (NFBIC).
Some
18
clergy men and women from about 10 states, including important swing
states
like Ohio and Tennessee, gathered in the Nation’s Capital for a prayer
breakfast, then held a news conference to explain how the NFBIC, a 527
Political Organization, will work and what it will do.
NFBIC
Executive
Director Oliver N.E. Kellman, Jr. said, “For way too long, the
Democratic Party
has taken the African American vote for granted, and while a majority
of Black
Americans do support the Democrats’
ticket, there are many, many of us who are aligned with conservative
platforms. . Now, with NFBIC, we
have a forum from which to express our views and to coalesce our
political
influence. Folks inside the Beltway and elsewhere need to recognize we
can make
a difference in helping President Bush and Vice President Cheney win
some key
states, and that we will work hard to do just that.”
Included
in
NFBIC’s endorsement was praise for the President’s support of issues
that face
parts of the African American community nationwide.
According
to the endorsement statement, “The President has advocated on behalf of
our
interests by establishing centers of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives
which address the problems of homelessness, substance abuse,
welfare-to-work
families, ex-offenders, and at-risk youth. We believe that the
President’s
initiatives represent a new approach to the government’s role in
helping those
in need.”
Mr.
Kellman, who was a Democrat for many years but is now a Republican,
says he
started the NFBIC “to unite hundreds of this country’s African American
religious leaders in spreading the compassionate conservative message.”
“We plan to
fight for the preservation of moral and conservative values and social
reform
through economic empowerment. NFBIC is pushing an aggressive political
campaign
by organizing surrogates in many states to mobilize a grassroots effort
to
change the political attitude of this country’s political leaders and
how they
view the growing conservative and conservative-moderate faith based
African-American constituency,” he explained.
Bishop
Clarence McClendon, of the Full Harvest International Church in West
Los
Angeles and one of the attendees to both the prayer breakfast and the
news
conference said, “The time has come when the conservative Black
Americans can
step forward and speak up, speak out, and speak the truth about how
they think
this country should be governed. The National Faith Based Initiative
Coalition
provides them with the opportunity to do that, and even more
importantly,
provides them with a viable conduit to turn their individual voices
into real
political clout.”
Mr.
Kellman
says the NFBIC is seeking to accomplish three goals during the 2004
election.
They include: Reinforcing a family-based and values message to African
Americans in states key to popular and electoral vote battles;
Identifying and
mobilizing African American faith based and pro-life supporters in an
extensive
door-to-door grassroots voter contact program; and developing a
speakers
program that will concentrate its efforts on cities in key battleground
states.
“NFBIC
will
be a strong and loud voice in this election and in others in the
future.
Millions of African Americans will be interested in what NFBIC has to
offer. We
hope to persuade some of them who vote Democratic to make a switch to
the
Republican Party. In addition, and maybe even more importantly, we hope
to
provide a political home to African Americans who, for one reason or
another,
chose not to vote at all. The influence of that block is virtually
unlimited,
and we believe many of them are conservatives at heart,” Mr. Kellman
said.
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THE
NATIONAL
FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE COALITION
1329 18TH
Street, NW
Washington,
DC 20036
202-466-7701