Faith & Politics: A Bold Call to Action
00:00:00 this is strategic moves with Kowal this is strategic moves with [Music] Kowal this is strategic moves with [Music] Kowal what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of Strategic Moves i’m your host Ken Dao this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all together and we do it every Tuesday right here on WOVU 95.9 FM right here in the heart of Cleveland Ohio uh right in the heart of Cleveland Ohio right here in the heart of Cleveland Ohio but when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of Strategic Resources where we specialize
00:00:50 in political campaigns government and public relations work i’ve been doing it all around this city for over 25 years and I want to make your next move a strategic move so this program gives me an opportunity to do just that i get a chance to bring on some of the people that I met we talk about some of the things that we have experienced in our lives and maybe we’ll get an opportunity to get a chance for you to get something out of it that will help you in your business or your personal life so if that’s something you’d be interested in we want you to be a part of that
00:01:19 conversation by calling in to 216-27109-59 to be a part of that conversation or you can if you’re listening to us on our social media platform you can leave us a comment right there online and we will then be able to get your comment up and while you at it why don’t you subscribe to our channel we have a YouTube channel that we come out and every week we put out new episodes of guests and some of the guests comes right here on our radio show we talk a little bit to them and then from that we go ahead and then put them over on to our podcast and we have a podcast it’s called
00:01:53 Kendow unfiltered if you want to really hear the real thing that’s going on that’s what we talk about and we get down on that podcast and you can catch that on YouTube do it’s YouTube.comkda that’s Ken with two N’s d o wll so today’s program is going to be a juicy one we have none other than um Pastor Aaron Phillips who’s going to be in the pro program today and the title of our program today is called From the Pool Pit to Politics with Pastor Aaron Phillip today we’re going to talk a little bit about should faith leaders be more politically engaged that’s what our whole
00:02:30 conversation is going to be about today we’re going to talk a little bit about the history of how the African-American church has made its way through this process and how the church has been a big part of what’s been going on and if the church is doing more and could do more to make um a difference in our community and we have the gentleman um as we call him the mouth from the south who’s going to be up here today to tell us everything about that who’s that that’s you brother from the south well you know we gonna make you from the south today i I
00:03:02 couldn’t get it you’re from the mountain hills of of Colorado colorado there you go high top Rockies rockies i ain’t want to get all off into that i couldn’t find nothing to rhyme with the mountain west but that’s what we going to call you today but he’s calm today i called this boy i said “Phil I want you to be calm to have a conversation with me.” So we going to have him in here and we going to do that but before we get started we’re gonna do a quick shout out to the team to help us put everything together and help us to keep things moving right along
00:03:32 we Oh excuse me we have DJ Unicorn she is our engineer the quietest person on our show but she has a lot of other programs so she said “I’m quiet on your show because I talk on all these other ones.” So she’s here and she helps us do our engineering work we have DJ TR who is our our person who helps us with all our engineering work to make us look good and everything we’re trying to work out all our different angles for everything and we have my man Zeke here also today so fellas we got a formul program this afternoon what’s going on in your world Mr uh we’ll start
00:04:04 with Latif what’s happening with you real quick sir before we get started oh man just good to be here just good to be here trying to uh you know get get going on a talk talk to me Tuesdays for that to happen in church so wow okay well it definitely uh the resident fell first i don’t know why you asking him no that was just a comment i mean this is and we going to get to you we going to get we going to get how you feel about it too we going to get how you feel about it Phil so so I’m going to ask another question we going to get going in a hot second with uh uh we got Zeke here
00:05:34 and Zeke is going to tell us what’s going on with the millennials this week i don’t know if it’s really Millennial uh per se but I will say that uh I’m I saw this morning that Malik Yoba y’all remember him from Yeah man i thought he died New York Undercover and whatever else he’s on i don’t know what what he’s been doing lately but Well I guess he hasn’t he recently made headlines saying that he no longer identifies as a black man but rather as a non-white person okay he says that black is a political term one rooted in colonial frameworks that doesn’t serve our collective
00:06:11 liberation anymore he’s challenging us to rethink identity behind how the system labels us so the question I have is is this an evolution of thought or are we losing the power of unity by breaking up these terms like black you know PLC he’s just crazy that’s all i mean he woke up this morning you know who else said that and it might be an actor thing raven Simone said the same thing raven Simone said “I don’t identify as AfricanAmerican i identify as an American i don’t know where my roots are from Africa.” There’s been movements of people been saying that for years and
00:06:51 if that’s the way he wants to be identified it’s no different than identifying as he she me or whatever else they got going so when you see Malik Ya everybody he says don’t call him black man we gonna call him “Ain’t you that dude who used to be on what’s the name of the dead?” New Yorkver new York undercover yeah i think you that guy right i ain’t gonna even give him the props to say “Ain’t you the guy who died in the Janet Jackson movie you couldn’t handle Janet you committed suicide and ran your car.” We could go on and on with you that dude I mean come on really i give me somebody
00:07:29 i’ll be hurt if if if Chad with Boseman said that on his way out or something i’d be like “Man Chad you you was Wakanda forever man you feel that way but now you you gonna go from that to this is how you feel?” No I don’t have a serious problem with that but other than that man Malik Yoba we ain’t giving him that energy not at all he don’t deserve it not at all so is that So with that though identifying as nonwhite as a black man what does that mean to you what do you think that mean even means you a coward you that brother who was on the slave plantation i can’t leave boss if we
00:08:07 get free they might come find us i’m He He was that guy he was never part of the team he was He was the guy who towed on Harriet Tubman when the people were trying to get free he’s that guy who never wanted to do any That’s who he is and that’s how anybody who identify with being anything other than what you were born to be that’s what it is you’re a black man and whether he want to believe it or not Hollywood going to let him know that cuz they ain’t going to give him no role as no leading
00:08:33 white man all right so what the heck he talking about it’s just like I say we’re not giving him no energy i don’t give nobody no energy on that it’s just ridiculous it’s totally ridiculous you know so why even Malik Yoba you know what i I said this Uni i did say this didn’t I i said we was going to start a segment that says you can’t be smart and stupid at the same time so we gonna start that today the award goes out today we’re giving this to my man Malik Yoba because you can’t be stupid and smart at the same time by believing that you don’t can’t be identified as a black man
00:09:14 so we giving that right to him today and we’re going to start that every week and I just didn’t get my sounds and stuff together when we get our sounds together it’s gonna be awesome oh there it is there it is that’s my E that’s my man Malik Ya you can’t be smart and stupid at the same time so that’s what we seal on that part y’all we going to take a quick break we going to come back because we gonna get this fire started we jumping head first in to Reverend Aaron Phillips and this church thing hey pastor do you identify as a pastor or you you want us to call you something
00:09:46 else you you pastor i have many identities and I I don’t like when people try to put me in boxes so I have I have many talents many identities that I many things I identify with so uh that’s who I am thinks we are we are sum of many things not just one thing wow there you go there you go you know what we going to take we had a caller count in real quick we going to take this quick call before we go on break because I don’t want to keep you on hold while we do this commercial break caller you
00:10:12 on the air today is what’s on your mind Tuesday what’s on your mind hello is that me that’s you oh okay um I just wanted to say that um uh the word for black in Spanish is negro and that is the origin of the nword n I g e r mhm so um when people say when um black people say we don’t want to be black negro is a Spanish uh word so that’s um uh I’m just I’m just trying to say like um black and negro is it’s all the same that’s just my point and then that and then the I guess the slave masters from negro I guess they came up with n i g e r mhm so
00:11:07 basically when a person say they don’t want to be called black from my perspective they don’t uh understand the Spanish uh language because that’s where um the black and the negro and in Spanish is all the same so your suggestion is we shouldn’t call him black we should call him negro yeah i think negro Yeah all right i think negro is just a um I can deal with that word i can deal with that that’s good old Spanish word let’s Let’s call him that negro that’s what he wanted to be hey he said don’t call him that we call him that that’s what it is hey
00:11:45 caller i want to thank you for calling in tune in we going to take a quick break and when we get right back we’re jumping in with Pastor Aaron Phillips um if you want to call in please call in 2162710959 we’ll see you in a minute what’s up Cleveland it’s time to turn up the conversation tune in to the strategic moves for Kendall radio show for what’s on your mind Tuesdays call in comment and connect on 95.9 FM wov.org and hit us up on social media let’s [Music] go calling all caregivers saturday April 12th the Alzheimer’s Association in collaboration with
00:12:29 Sigma Gamma Row is showing love to the amazing caregivers in our community with a free caregiver lunchon join us from 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m at the Fatima Family Center 6600 Lexington Avenue for a day of appreciation support and connection enjoy a delicious lunch capture beautiful family portraits hear inspiring caregiver testimonials and give valuable information on free community resources to help you on your journey if you or someone you know is caring for a loved one this event is for you and them rsvp today by calling Frederick Knuckles at
00:13:10 216-342-567 that’s 216342-5607 let’s come together to uplift and celebrate our caregivers saturday April 12th from 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m see you there this message was brought I’m your host Ken Dal and today we’re stepping into a powerful conversation that sits at a crossroads of faith and politics it’s time when polit It’s time for when politics shaped the soul politics has been shaping the shoulders of our community from criminal justice reform economic um equities and voting rights it begs the question should faith leaders be stepping up and speaking
00:15:58 out more on these issues should the pull pit echo the policy our guest is someone who lives in who lives these and tend to live in the space and speak boldly about that it’s Pastor Aaron Phillips he’s not just a faith leader he is a community mobilizer a bridge between the scared and the civic the scarred excuse me not scared the scarred and the sacred that’s probably what you mean the sacred and the civic sacred that’s what you mean yeah the sacred and the civic not scared sacred so you ain’t been to church in a long time King you don’t know what sacred is sacred is when you
00:16:32 go to church on first Sunday sacred is something i went to church on first Sunday you went to And then you had a sacred is when you set something aside it’s sanctified is purified oh that’s why I was trying to change that word because it was saying sanctified and I was talking about you right that’s that’s an insight that’s but it is it’s the where we bring the sacredness of the of our relationship with the Lord into the civic engagement of our community and that is a great way to put that yes and Eric Phillips is someone who’s been working with us in our community
00:17:07 he’s not just a friend of mine he’s someone who I lean on and can ride as it relates to these tough conversations we have especially as it relates to our community and working with the clergy so it was he was a very good person to have come in for us to sit down and have these conversations with and talk about it so we going to jump right into it pastor because ain’t no point in messing around let’s get into it do you believe that faith leaders have a responsibility to be publicly active publicly active and should the pool pit be a separate place from the policy arena uh
00:17:42 yeah well first let me first of all say uh thank you very much to you uh Mr kendall my dear friend and brother for bringing these hard conversations to our community that’s what really needs to be happening is us having these hard conversations and making sure that the church stays relevant and connected to the community so I appreciate being on this platform to to discuss this i think the u the question is where is the where is the faith community in in regards to politics and I I think we always and we know Rabbi Goston’s in the house you always should always know where
00:18:15 something comes from so we can know where we are so then we can know where we can go and when I’m talking about faith in the uh in the civic engagement space in the in the public square space is that’s nothing that’s really new and especially when it comes to the African-American church we have always we started as a protest church in every major faith denomination the black community has always has come has started under a protest movement whether you’re talking about the AM church with Richard Allen the AM uh United AM uh United Methodist Church who did
00:18:52 not allow black people to be in the forefront in leadership or even be in the sanctuary so Richard Allen said he said you can black folks can only pray on in the balcony not not down on the altar richard Allen said no I we as people we can seek God the same level as everyone else started the AM church which we has grown to be a fantastic church that was over 200 what the AM stand for american I’m sorry African African Methodist Episcopal Church and that’s the and there’s several there’s AM Zion CME church and then we also have the the initiation of the Baptist church coming from from
00:19:29 being Southern Baptist where Southern Baptist people did not allow black folks into their their space so black Baptist folks got together said no we are there’s a place for us now we have one of our largest denominations still today is the National Baptist Convention there’s several of those and even when the Pentecost people think that doesn’t it doesn’t include the Pentecostal church but it absolutely does uh in 1906 there was a movement in uh called Isusa Street in California where was led by Daddy Seymour that’s where all of the Pentecostal denominations came from not
00:20:00 just the church of God in Christ but the church of God the church of God the white folks they were all together but when they came to organize they all came under the guidance that we’re going to be a spiritfilled people speaking in other tongues believing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit but when it came time to organize the leader of the movement which was Daddy Seymour white folks didn’t want to do that so they started a separate church of God movement and that’s where you get the Church of God in Christ so all of the black church traditional movements have started from
00:20:27 a protest point of view but what I really want to be clear about that doesn’t mean that every faith le every black faith leader is going to be politically engaged but we do need to know our our lane to walk in and there’s always been this uh tugof-war between are we going to be politically are we going to be spiritual there’s always that back and forth that’s going on and but and I what I have been doing uh since I’ve been a pastor a preacher and living is there shouldn’t be an either or it’s a matter of both and and many times we get caught up with the intellectual
00:21:01 people want to think that you know we don’t need to be doing all that hooping and shouting but then uh but we need to be politically engaged and then the spiritual folks who want to whoop and shout and pray they don’t think we need to be involved in politics but it’s actually we need both it’s not a matter of either or we need to bring them both together and if you’re not and you need to walk where you’re comfortable in everybody’s not going to be like Aaron Phillips you know people talk about you was talking about today i’m I’m excited whenever I’m talking about something
00:21:27 I’m excited about i’m a passionate person so I’m going to be excited no if I’m talking about Ken Dao I love him you I’m gonna be talking exciting i’m going to be excited about now if I don’t like you you won’t hear me say very much about you but if you know when there’s there’s energy behind the P but everybody’s not me so you’re not going to so everybody’s not going to be enged to walk in the lanes that we’re walking in and then support those who walks in other lanes but I do believe that every African-American church no matter what your denomination is does have some basic civic
00:21:58 engagement responsibilities as like getting people enrolled to vote making sure people are registered to vote and making sure people are engaged in what’s happening in their community around them no matter what your denomination is no matter what your background is but someone’s everybody’s not gonna be as engaged in the inside things of political uh movements like we are Ken but doesn’t mean that it’s not important for all of us so let me ask you this then you know historically the black church has been a cornerstone to civil rights voting movements and social justice as we
00:22:29 just talked about so I’m asking you now do you feel that the church has stepped back from its leadership role and or do you think it’s just evolving in a different way well that’s a loaded question i I the church has gone through so many transitions from what it needs to be uh there’s a lot of That’s why I really appreciate this conversation you you can’t get a lot of even uh pastors even be able to have this conversation anymore there’s a lot of things that the church used to do that’s not doing that we’re doing that we probably shouldn’t be doing but I think
00:23:00 overall especially in this last election we did see uh um movement and organization a coming together of the black church community to to mobilize together we’re seeing more of that but we but it it could be done on such a much deeper level more impactful especially with all of the uh power that the the potential power that we’re sitting on we I think that we we we have not even touched the the tip of the iceberg of what the black church can do politically economically spiritually we just really need to come together to do that so yeah we have a lot of work to do
00:23:36 doesn’t mean that we’re not doing anything because there are many churches engaged in things but can we do more absolutely absolutely completely we can hey what’s the difference between being political and being partisan and how can a pastor walk the fine line without uh alienating parts of his congregation can you know we we know that um as you was trying to talk every pastor can’t do it like everybody and to some degree we know that there are some elements that need to take place in the church so how do you walk that fine line you know I I I think
00:24:10 that’s a very a great question and we see there’s a fight now between uh Jamal Bryan and a bishop out in California and I I think that I don’t like that at all uh I don’t think we should be engaged solely and so deep into partisan politics that’s not who the church is and and I think we do get mixed up to believe that all black people all the black churches are all democratics and all that we shouldn’t we should we’re about policy that’s what we really when we talk about politics we’re really
00:24:39 talking about the policies and the policies that that the black church has to be concerned about is is there equality for our folks equal opportunity for our people is there equal education standards for our folks uh allowing our people to have a seat at the table and we should be how we can improve our community that’s what the policy that’s why you have to be engaged in government you know there’s people don’t like to say that they’re they’re not they don’t not political but uh if you when you get your paycheck you know this Kim you know you remember that first time
00:25:12 we got our paycheck we thought about this when we were kids we we thought we was making uh $4 an hour we got our check it was ended up being 350 and I we seen this thing who’s FICA who is that so everybody is no matter what you’re doing the government you’re going to have to have some government involvement so we just because you’re living in America whether you participate or not is your choice but you’re going to be impacted by this government no matter what you do because you’re breathing in the air in in this America so we all are automatically brought to the table
00:25:43 our level of engagement is based on who we are and what and what we bring to the table in that engagement you know you mentioned the Jamal Bryant incident that he’s going through and that um that thing with the um pastor um so the white evangelicals and some of the Republicans yeah we going to go there too you might as well they doesn’t feel that the black church black church is doing is p is pure part of what is built to be and that is to uphold the word of god yeah you know now now you’re going to now you know talking about cussing in the pulpit that’s a good place
00:26:21 to cuss right there uh I would but I’m not going to cuss uh but I’ve been known to use those words from time to time but my you know I get upset when any particularly white evangelical Trump loving preacher has anything to comment about the black church because they have what they’re what the evangelicals have done they took a page out of our playbook and and rolled it up into ro you know fighting against abortion fighting against gay right all of that they but they used our plate because we mobilized ourselves as black people through the black church because that’s the only
00:27:05 institution that we ran and and and we were in charge of now we have other institutions now but at the beginning of bringing uh uh bringing freedom to our people it started with the black church because that’s the only institution that we ran everything and now uh so we we we seen the civil rights movement came through the black church we everyone knows Reverend Dr martin Luther King was a graduate from Morehouse uh college of the uh school of theology as well as went on to get his doctorate degree so the black church and the black preacher always been engaged that is not
00:27:42 true i say the best way to say the black church is not just us where we are empowered politically but it’s also our culture it’s who we are we all grew up that is not the the historical reference that white folks have we all have an experience but but now Kim what’s really what’s really u challenging for a person like myself is we have two generations of our own folks who have now who are now unchurched and that’s what we have to address so I don’t I don’t listen to any advice from the white evangelicals about holding up the word of God we’ve been we have to do both we got to preach
00:28:18 the word of God and preach about liberation at the same time you know black liberation theology is a real thing that exists because of writers like Howard Thurman and and James Con and Henry Lewis Gates who talks about how the church as a movement helped bring liberation to our people you know some people and there’s a lot of people who believe preachers should leave the preaching alone leave the politics alone yeah and a lot of pre preachers think politics politicians will leave the politics alone okay the truth yeah and and and so how do you respond to those folks who criticize
00:28:52 pastors for being too political well I think those the people who do that they’re trying to take away power from the black community that that would actually saying we should telling a business person you need to leave politics alone or tell an educators you need to leave politicians alone or tell an entertainment you need to no we all have a role to play in making policy that shapes and transform our community you can’t tell a preacher how how can a uh a legitimate preacher where you’re black or white see what’s happening and you look in the in the Bible Moses was the a liberator
00:29:27 and that’s what the church is jesus Christ is always on the side of the oppressed that’s who he is so if you’re not talking about liberating people listen I need to be you need to be saved sanctified filled with the Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues i do all of that dance in the spirit if you come to church I you know I’m very at uh very um what animated out on the streets well you should see me at church i’m overly animated at church we worship and praise God but at the same time after church is over we’re trying to make sure we put some have some uh tools to put in
00:29:57 your toolbox so you can make sure you have a good job you’ll be you’ll be able to have a housing for your family be able to take care of of your mental health needs so there we have to do it all it’s never a matter of either or and especially when it comes to the black preacher we have always had to be more than just some a person pontificating on Sunday morning that’s great but we need more than a nice homaly and sometimes we get uh that that means a sermon that by the way what’s a homaly
00:30:28 right that’s a that’s a sermon but we need more we need we need I I my daughter and I was having this conversation we don’t just need education and information but we also need application and so application is what we’re doing when we’re coming taking our faith to the streets whether that’s in city hall that’s down the state of Ohio and Columbus or in Washington DC we that is us putting our faith in action faith without works is dead so we’re not just here to be praying and seeking and waving our hand but we also are to be about our father’s business doing our faith and
00:31:00 that’s the and that’s the difference and that’s and I think that’s what has turned a lot of people off it would turn me off too with churches if all you’re going to do is just get me you know uh get me emotional on Sunday and then nothing else after that well you might as well just took me to the sent me to the bar give me a bag of weed then give me some give me some cocaine that’s a opium and that is what has happened with the in colonialism with in colonialism they have used black preachers
00:31:28 and want to say “No don’t don’t do don’t deal with these social issues don’t deal with these other uh don’t deal with these issues that impact our community just get people high and shouting and dancing in church and that’s enough no but it’s got to be more than that hey you’re listening to Pastor Aaron Phillips right here on Strategic Moves with Ken Dao we’re going to be talking with Pastor Phillips more about the role of the black church in our community and we going to take a quick break and when we get right back we’re going to continue conversation if you want to call in
00:31:55 216271959 216 271959 We’ll be right back cleveland this is your show your topics and your voice join me Ken D for what’s on your mind Tuesday on 95.9 FM Wov call in a comment on social media let’s make this conversation unforgettable streaming live at [Music] wov.org attention Cleveland students are you a young ambitious student looking for a way to fund your future the Timothy L tramble Jr memorial Scholarship Fund is here to help established in 2019 to honor the life and memory of an optimistic person and student who
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00:34:50 freedom starts with knowledge see you there this message is brought to you by the Phoebe Foundation and WOVU 95.9 FM our voices united missiondriven [Music] 247 matters with none other than Pastor Aaron Phillips so lean in turn it up and let’s get into it because faith without work is dead all right we’re back with Pastor Aaron Phillips and we’re continuing the conversation talking around um the African-American church and pastors and faith leaders being a part of that you know there was something I read and we gonna do another show on that i was going through the
00:35:36 interwebs one of these early mornings when I can’t sleep and I found a article it wasn’t an article it was a YouTube a pastor was breaking down how um abortions and um and how the white community used the abortion issue um as a wedge issue yes and how the church got involved in that the white church got involved in it and the purpose of it was not for what it was meant out to be but it was more so as a form of DEI for white folks and I’m going to get more on I know that sound crazy i want everybody to kind of hold on to that cuz I’m going to bring that out and he made an interesting
00:36:21 um um argument about it and and we’re going to talk about it but one of the things I wanted to talk about because one of the things he talked about was what made it interesting for me was it was talking about how the church and um and the nonprofit aspect of the church came in where the the um IRS designations and all of that came through this whole process of what was going on as this abortion rights came about and we’re going to do a whole search on that and I’m surprised if Goldstein didn’t know more about that but we’ll talk about that was something that came out and
00:36:59 I saw it and I thought it was interesting so I wanted to I I’m setting that up to ask you this question because I know a few pastors and we go through this with pastors during election time and others that some preachers seem to believe and have a understanding that hey we are a nonprofit organization just like this radio station and other organizations are nonprofit that we don’t want to mess up our 501c3 by doing anything that is along the lines of endorsing a candidate or any of those that is so how does I guess the question is how do you balance that how do you make that
00:37:39 work how how does a pastor go from trying to make something like that and be able to have the confidence of knowing that um the confidence of knowing that that kind of thing exists well uh many times people have such a misunderstanding about what it means to have a 501c3 uh and that’s and I do we we do at SH House Baptist Church as well as the Cleveland Clergy Coalition we’re a 501c3 non- tax uh taxexempt organization so because of that uh there’s there’s a limit on your political engagement but the limit is only as when it comes to partisan politics so that
00:38:20 generally speaking means you can’t be campaigning for a specific individual as underneath your 501c3 but when it comes to issues we can always talk about it things that impact our community as a nine as a 501c3 uh uh taxexempt organizations because issues are not partisan issues so even though one particular party may be endorsing a particular issue that doesn’t make that issue a Democratic or Republican issue and when it comes to abortion and that’s what I don’t know I didn’t see this clip but I know uh many times uh uh the that’s why I would that’s why I say
00:39:00 the the white community actually took that from us because when it was coming to us engaging in civil rights activity as churches in the 60s who had who were 50 taxexempt organizations but we when you’re talking about civil rights we don’t care if you’re voting for Kennedy or Nixon we’re talking about who is going to be the best for our people to say we ought to have equal rights we ought to be able to shop the same places eat the same places have the same opportunities economically and educa and
00:39:26 educationally so because of that those were issues that the church was able to mobilize well the white church took that model and and did do that with abortion and said “We’re not whether we’re uh Republican or not this is an issue or Democrats this is an issue that we want to own as a church because we believe in we’re pro-life.” So that pro-life became an issue and so they can endorse that issue so that’s maybe that’s what they were we’re talking about so as a 501c3 you can always you can endorse issues now as but as a pastor and I’m still an individual person i
00:40:00 can support political candidates because I have a right to speech as well but I I’m not doing it as a pastor Shal Baptist Church i’m doing it as I’m a a person in the community who just happens to also be a pastor yeah because one of the things a lot of nonprofit organizations and others they when they hear word voting they start to run and get scared right but voting is actually you know a civic thing that the government actually pays for you have they actually pay to invest money in to making sure voter education is out there and people understand the vote yes it gets tricky if
00:40:33 you have certain candidates that come up and if you stand in your pull pit and you say “I’m in full support of XYZ candidate and without giving a opportunity disclaimer or give an opportunity for the other side to come in and say something as well you put yourself in danger for that but voter registration getting out here speaking up getting out here doing the things that’s necessary is something that you can do from your church pull pit and there’s two things about that Ken that you and I always talk about one uh the other side our opposition uses that as voter suppression
00:41:08 they use that line that you can’t get involved in politics because you’re a 501c3 they use that as suppressing our vote and the other thing is some of our own folks use that same excuse for being lazy and not getting engaged because and so it kind of works as a double-edged sword sometimes but neither neither is true you can stay and be involved and be engaged even though if you have even though you are a nonprofit organization that’s not paying taxes uh Rabbi stepped in for a second and I just wanted to ask you Rabbi you got some understanding of how um I was looking at
00:41:44 something and it came up and it talked about how the abortion issue when it very first came out cuz the abortion issue came up not too long ago and when they started doing it and um and from that standpoint they talked about how it was used as a wedge issue for churches mainly um white churches as well as black churches to be able to get their um designations of IRS designation plus prior to that I don’t think churches were nonprofit organizations churches are not nonprofit churches are automatically exempt from taxation mhm um if your church But when did that start let
00:42:26 me let me let me Okay the Constitution of the United States that’s wrote in the Constitution the Constitution of the United States uh in the Federalist Papers in the Federalist Papers uh church um um uh the pe the American people must give up some of their li liberties in order to be governed and protected however that government must be limited in order for that government to be limited there must be a a moral voice that moral voice has been designated to be the church therefore the federal government cannot intimidate cohers or interfere in a church in any kind of way
00:43:06 so that the church can be the moral voice that stood until 1969 when Lyndon Baines Johnson issued a executive order forbidding pastors and churches to um endorse political candidates mhm that executive order stood into 2017 when Donald Trump unfortunately rescended that executive order and so now all right the church uh pastors the pull pit has the right now here’s the caveat if your church in order to receive federal funding or governmental funding state state county uh or federal uh funding uh files for a 501c and get gets that 501c as a 501c3 that church cannot
00:44:02 endorse a political candidate but if it does not have a 501c3 it is if it’s a duly constituted church of five or more members it is automatically taxexempt it cannot be taxed nor is property if I’m making sense no you understand i I I was just I I I was really on this thing and I’m going to we gonna get some research in i’m going to do a show on that but this guy he really broke down on how before then they were saying that churches wasn’t a nonprofit but I don’t want to get stuck on that because we got some more questions I want to get to you they’re not they’re tax exempt they’re not
00:44:42 nonprofits they are exact they are just tax exact i got you and thanks Rabbi for coming in on that pastor we going to jump back at you because we getting ready to run out of time on here and I want to make sure I give you a proper time to get your u closing in i want to ask you on a national basis and what’s going on nationally right now what are some of the things that you believe that pastors should be doing right now to get their message out to people and could be doing as a a way of getting out what’s going on nationally here that you think more pastors can be doing from
00:45:19 their pull pit and getting that word out to folks i I I think uh we as pastors in this in these days and and this is just clearly my opinion it’s not the gospel but because uh people come to us and depend on and need trusted information we have to be on our top P’s and Q’s making sure all our uh eyes are dotted and tees are crossed and and be up on what’s happening in around us as well as being deep and and making it relevant to the Bible and having an historical reference and giving some application to what uh folks did in that day and what we need to be doing today we need to make
00:46:01 sure that we are actually doing and not just pre preaching so there’s there’s so many things that uh that goes along with that but I but we do need to be preaching the gospel and and and I think one thing I would say Ken that I would probably wouldn’t have said five years ago more than anything people’s lives need to be ch changed and transformed by the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is what changes lives foremost forever for sure for certain and then we also have to bring real application what’s happening around us as the prophets of old
00:46:41 and the old testament Jesus in the new he he made things relatable and we so there there’s no way you can’t can’t talk about uh what’s happening across this country and what’s happening in in with the diminishing of democracy at which we know it and uh and people uh not following the constitution it’s not there’s no way you can just put your close your eyes and put your head in the sand and not speak to this these issues in these days and when we don’t do that as a church that’s when we lose people to the church that’s why in in Europe the churches are museums because they
00:47:16 lost that touch of what and being relevant in what’s happening in their community that same thing will happen in America eventually if we are not speaking the gospel truth of Jesus Christ and then making it relevant to people’s daily lives or if we’re not doing that people are and and we are seeing that over and over again people are turning to all other alternatives instead of looking to the church for answers and I believe and still believe strongly the answer was with the church because the church answer is Jesus Christ i’m going to hit you with two more questions man
00:47:47 you got to hit me with quick answers so we can get you out of here okay how often we often hear your thoughts and prayers after a tragedy but how does how can you turn that faith into policy that’s really needed right now how can how can we take instead of that we get that from the church all the time oh our thoughts and prayers go out after a tragedy but that’s all we get we I’m with you yeah i don’t even like seeing those bunny rabbits and you know stuffed animals and balloons we need to do something about taking the guns out of the hands of young people so we don’t
00:48:18 have some tragedies we need to make sure we’re addressing uh mental health issues so people are how does the church how will the church I know we know it needs to do that but what can you guys do what mo movements or things you guys are doing to kind of prepare yourself for that well uh uh practically uh we have programs like what we do i can say something that we’re actually doing we’re making sure people are getting economics economic solutions so you need it one thing to get a gun out of a person’s hands put a job in their hand so doing those kind of things that’s your part
00:48:54 and then another thing is providing safe places for mental health conversations in the church in the in the church today we absolutely and we a dear friend of ours Pastor Kyle Early is providing that space mentally mangled and you have other churches who are doing that i heard and we were on a conference so we are doing some things to address these issues so we can be about our father’s business there’s a litany of things we just don’t have a time to talk about but there’s a lot of things going on but what’s not happening we need to put it in a way so everybody can can
00:49:25 access that same information that’s why a platform like yours brother Kenda is so vital important to this movement all right here’s your last one for me and then I’m going to let you close us out how do you prepare and equip the next generation of faith leaders to be bold politically engaged and voices for their communities boy I wish that now I wish I had answer for that uh that’s one I the best thing I can do is be an example uh and because but you have to have a wantness a desire uh to be in this space and a lot of people uh my brother and I this may be a little controvers they
00:50:03 get into the ministry without having the right heart’s desire for it because if you get in the ministry thinking you’re going to get get become rich or you’re going to become popular or you know you’re going to uh get some self grand enticement that is not what ministry is about so if you if you have a desire to do this and we can there is people and u places for you to get that mentorship i’m one of those but my problem Ken because when I was a a person that needed me being needed to be mentored there were plenty of people I had a desire for that today I don’t see a lot of
00:50:38 uh young men and women who desire to get involved and get in and get in these places i do see a lot of young men and women who want to be seen be on Facebook and be entertainers but that is not the ministry and the the the civil engagement and faith and action and application that we need to have the model that we’re following today so we we’re here we just need some some people with some desire to want to get in this space with us all right Pastor Phillips I want to thank you for coming on the program i’m going to give you your final thoughts so we can get our way up
00:51:08 out of here man you got a couple of seconds give us your final thoughts uh my final thought is uh faith without works is dead we have to get back to uh to our roots and engaging and the why we do what we do it’s not just for be because it’s the a politically being politically correct but being on the side of the oppressed is always doing God’s business and we should always be seeking freedom and particularly for our community and letting people know that the church is relevant because we’re speaking to the issues of the day and we are concerned and we love you as a people and this is
00:51:44 how we’re showing that we’re doing something to transform people’s lives on a dayto-day basis not just trying to get people excited once a week all right i want to say this too you know I want us to say um let me say this if you’re a pastor in a community but afraid to speak truth to power ask yourself who you preaching for you know we need more spiritual sideline we don’t need more spiritual sideline cheerleaders we need faith leaders who will stand in the gap speak to the issue and lead the people not just in prayer but in purpose the reality is this politics decide
00:52:19 how everything in our community goes the way you eat you learn live and die and in the pull pit is and if you’re in the pool pit in silence while politics is going on and things are going on you’re just hurting your own people we’re f we’re failing in the gospel and justice for all our community and this is a call of action so if you’re a waiting for someone to give you that call to action to do something well we’re here today to get a call action to you right now i’m letting you know if you want to do something you just got to go out and do it you got to quit waiting on people
00:52:52 to do that for you and we can’t keep waiting on someone else to come save us we have to save ourselves so till next time this is Strategic Moves with Ken Dao i want to thank Pastor Aaron Phillips for being one of these guys who’s been a nice leader in our community his boldness and his faith in motion and a good listener to me as as it relates to all things going on and been fighting in our community for years i want to thank you for coming on our program yes you can thank you for this platform and anybody else we’ll see y’all next week peace cleveland this is your show your
00:53:27 topics and your voice join in for what’s on your mind Tuesday on 95.9 FM WOVU call in or comment on social media let’s make this conversation unforgettable streaming live on wovu.org [Music]