African-American Faith Leaders Reflect on 2024 Election Results and Renew Call to Action.

African-American Faith Leaders Reflect on 2024 Election Results and Renew Call to Action.

(ThyBlackMan.com) African-American faith leaders across the country are raising their voices in response to the results of the 2024 election with a mix of feelings in terms of how they are ministering to their members, many of whom, were deeply disappointed by the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris by former President Donald Trump, now President-elect again.

“It’s bigger than the White House, our God is bigger and if there was ever a time that we need to lean into our faith that was taught by our ancestors who never wavered. We also must build bridges that we have never built, across political lines that we have not built, across racial lines that we have not built so we are not feeling any ways tired to today,” says Rev. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, coordinator of a ten-state nonpartisan, multi-racial, interfaith, and multi-generation group called Faiths United to Save Democracy. She is also founder of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Prayer Breakfast and author of the book, “I Prayed, Now What?”

Skinner adds, “The massive disappointment that many feel now about the wrong direction for America must be put in the context of our faith.”

Bishop Jamal Harrison Bryant is pastor of the New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, where an intense push to get out the vote took place as Georgia was a battleground state, meaning it could go either Republican or Democratic. Bryant said he saw the election as a wakeup call to continue teaching on crucial issues from the pulpit.

“The sobering reality is that ministry goes on after the election. The church has to remain vigilant all year and so the fight for equality remains intact,” Bryant concluded. “The bible says that people die for the lack of knowledge, and it is my responsibility to educate people on the issues at stake “

Parishioners must be taught not to stand still, but to press on by remaining politically active on issues says Rev. Tony Lee, founder of Community of Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryland.

“We acknowledge the shock of the moment but not be paralyzed by it,” Lee said. “Many of us are in grief but we must lean into our hope that God still sits on the throne regardless of who sits on the throne.”

Lee also reminded of the difficult times that Black people have come through in America, including enslavement.

“We have seen hard times, and we have seen challenging leadership in the past, but our faith is in a God that can walk us through no matter what our situations are,” Lee said.

He also concluded that the Democratic Party, for which African-Americans dominantly vote, must look inward. “One can speculate about Trump and the Maga movement, but the Democratic party has just been doing a bad job in connecting with regular people. There is an elitism and there are too many on the ground organizations and they were just not putting the money where it needed to be.”

Rev. Joe Daniels, lead pastor of Emery United Methodist Church in D.C. and a long time community organizer, said voters must also study what the election says about America.

“We are at a time when America must look at itself in the mirror,” Daniels said. “We have a moral imperative. We have just elected a convicted felon…what does that say to our children? My prayer for this country is to do a deep dive in terms of character, integrity, truth, honor and all of the things that make us quality individuals. We have seen this movie before and the reruns.”

Many who believed the polls that Trump and Harris were running neck-in-neck now think that people ultimately could not bring themselves to vote for Harris once in the voting booth.

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