Noted race 'ho' Al Sharpton (I refuse to dignify him with the title of Reverend) was in Houston to call on local black congregations to help with huricane relief.

One problem -- this slick poverty pimp came to a community where churches of all denominations and ethnicities are already engaged in the process of helping those in need.

While government's emergency planning may have failed the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Al Sharpton called on Houston's black houses of worship today to feed, shelter and comfort the evacuees.

Speaking to about 50 of the city's faith leaders and a handful of politicians gathered inside North Houston's Community of Faith Church, the civil rights activist and former presidential candidate from New York said religious congregations must play a leading role in the relief effort.

"The black church community has always been the anchor in the storm when we have a problem," Sharpton said. "If our people, or any people that come to this city can't depend on the church to open its doors and open its hearts, then we ought to take down the crosses and quit claiming to serve God."

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and Andrea White, the wife of Mayor Bill White, also attended the meeting, which was arranged by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and the Rev. James Dixon II. Dallas Mavericks basketball coach Avery Johnson was there to announce a charity basketball game scheduled for next Sunday at Toyota Center.

Most agreed to take time during their sermons this morning to call on their members to open their homes to displaced families and volunteer to help those who have lost everything.

The Rev. I.V. Hilliard, pastor of New Light Christian Center Church, opened telephone hot lines for evacuees to reconnect with their pastors in Houston.

It's a service that's needed, said the Rev. Charles Southall III, pastor of First Emanuel Baptist Church in New Orleans. He attended today's meeting seeking help for members.

"I have a 1,200-member church and we're just trying to get stabilized," said Southall, who carries a folder full of Omni Hotel stationery filled with handwritten names and numbers of members he's reached so far. "I hear useful planning here today and I'm optimistic."

If Sharpton wants to really engage the Christian community, he will quit distinguishing between the "black church" and the "white church", for God knows no white or black or brown. And he will notice that the churches of Houston have opened their hearts and their doors to people of all races in this time of need.

Al, speaking as a Christian, let me say that we don't need a lying race-baiter (who still won't apologize for his lies in the Tawana Brawley case or for getting people killed because they were "white interlopers" doing business in the black community) to come into town to sow division between black and white. We don't need some charlatan to draw lines and create divisions between members of the body of Christ..

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 512 words, total size 3 kb.