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Prominent pastor endorses Obama
(by Mark J. Bonamo - January 29, 2008)
When it came time for the Rev. Gregory Jackson, senior pastor at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Hackensack, to decide between U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the Feb. 5 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary, the choice was clear.
“I don’t see the whole ‘experience’ argument that Hillary makes,” Jackson, 57, said. “She’s a senator just like Sen. Obama. But she happens to be married to someone who was President of the United States, Bill Clinton. However, that’s not the same thing as having experience. That’s like saying that my wife has experience being a pastor because she’s married to me.”
“Who her husband is may add value, or maybe it won’t,” Jackson continued. “But the critical point is the vision for the country that a candidate has. That’s why I am supporting Obama.”
The reverend’s reasons to believe
The Rev. Jackson, who presides over one the largest African-American congregations in Bergen County, chose to publicly endorse Obama for the first time in a telephone interview with Hackensack Chronicle. He stated that he did it in print rather than from the pulpit out of respect for the separation of church and state. Jackson then expanded upon why like many African-Americans he came to respect and support Obama’s candidacy after some initial hesitation.
“One of the problems for me early on with Obama was that he didn’t come up through the old civil rights movement ranks beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” he said. “But then again, neither did any of the other candidates. People make choices based on a number of different things, and race is one of them. But it’s not the only choice.”
Jackson underscored this statement by pointing to the results of the Jan. 26 South Carolina Democratic primary in which Obama registered a resounding 55 percent to 27 percent victory over Clinton. Exit polls indicating that Obama defeated Clinton by a dominant 80 percent to 16 percent among African-American voters. However, Obama also received close to a quarter of the white vote.
For Jackson, a native of Inman, a small town in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, this demographic breakdown showed his preferred candidates’ wide-ranging appeal.
“Obama is demonstrating the possibility of networking across racial lines,” he said. “He is a wonderful, gifted speaker and leader who can bring people together for change.”
Boosting Barack on the Feb. 5 ballot
While Jackson believes that Obama can be an agent for change in the U.S., he knows that making change happen through the ballot box can be an uphill battle, especially in Bergen County. He sees two obstacles ahead.
“There is the debate over the perception of electability among the candidates, and then there is the party line,” said Jackson, a reference to Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joseph Ferriero’s endorsement of Clinton.
“But it’s just a matter of people making a choice, so that’s fine. I don’t know if Obama is more electable or not. But I do think that he is electable.”
Jackson noted that he was gearing up to get out the vote for Obama on Feb. 5 with U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th district), a staunch Obama ally who represents Hackensack and the surrounding area.
Obama’s emerging place in history
Many political prognosticators point to Obama’s campaign as history in the making because an African-American presidential candidate has a real chance of making it to the White House. Jackson politely begs to differ.
“I don’t see it as a historical moment that Obama’s running,” he said. “There have been several very qualified African-Americans who have run for President in the past, including U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But it was historic that Barack won by such a wide margin in a Southern state like South Carolina. I think the results show that Barack has the ability to be a bridge-builder in a way that other African-American candidates were not seen to be before. To me, that’s history.”
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