Pastors condemn Black GOP candidates for racist remarks about Martin Luther King Jr.
Mark, Republican candidate for North Carolina Governor, speaks during his Burnsville rally, September 14, 2024. Photo: Angela Wilhelm/Citizen Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Black pastors condemn North Carolina’s gubernatorial and Lt. Governor candidate. Mark Robinson (R), for his previous statements against civil right leader Martin Luther King Jr. However, white Evangelicals are still celebrating Robinson.
Earlier this month, a CNN investigation revealed that Robinson had previously called himself a “black Nazi” on a porn site and also said that he would own slaves if he could. He said, “Get that f**king communist bastard off of the National Mall!” I’m not a member of the KKK. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with your community. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!” He also said King was “worse than a maggot” and a “huckster.”
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King’s child, Martin Luther King III, condemned Robinson’s comments, telling NBC News “His praise for slavery, disparaging rhetoric, and grotesque characterization of my dad and his legacy are deeply worrisome for North Carolinians and all Americans who oppose racism and bigotry.”
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King III said that he and his wife will be supporting Robinson’s opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, as well as “local candidates who will stand up for women, Black and Brown North Carolinians, and everyone else who Mark Robinson chooses to disparage.”
Bishop Sir Walter Mack of Union Baptist Church in Winston- Salem also alluded to Robinson’s comments, saying, “What we need to do is help people to understand what King stood for, and that was to unify people and to bring people together in the spirit of love, and that is the language and the method that we need to hold on to today. We will not glorify anyone who is against Dr. King’s work or legacy. It’s all about the love that he presented.”
Mycal Brickhouse, of Baptist Grove Church in Raleigh, said that Robinson’s statements show “a political leader who embraces a narrative of hatred and supremacy, creating more problems by casting a unifying leader as a threat. Instead of promoting polarizing and malicious views, we should learn from history’s lessons, and remember the negative effects of devaluing others’ humanity to boost one’s assumed superiority.”
Eric Vickers, pastor of Georgia’s Fairfield Baptist Church in Lithonia, said, “Among the numerous repulsive and erroneous assertions, to be a Black man in America and disrespect the sacrificial labor of Dr. King and the army of nonviolent, civil rights soldiers, is an affront to his ancestry and the freedoms he enjoys. Vickers said that “at this point for Mr. Robinson the best way to move forward is out.” “It is clear that voting in this election is of great consequence and the church must be engaged and concerned about the kind of society we will inherit if we fail to participate.”
When former President Donald Trump endorsed Robinson, he called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.” This is despite the fact that Robinson once called King a bad pastor and a communist and called the Black Civil Rights Movement a communist plot to “subvert capitalism” and “to subvert free choice.”
Robinson has publicly stated that he will not be withdrawing his candidacy from the election, with the opportunity to formally remove himself from the ballot having passed last week. Stein, meanwhile, is up by 14 points according to recent polls by Elon University.
White Evangelicals, meanwhile, are sticking with Robinson.
“I do not know what’s true and what’s not true,” said Dwight Frazier, a church member at Central Baptist Church in Henderson, who attended a luncheon led by the American Renewal Project, a group that encourages Christian pastors and church members to enter into North Carolina politics. “Everyone has done something wrong in the past, and they do some things that they would not be proud of.” He’s still a good man, in my opinion.” He’s still a good man, in my opinion.”
The American Renewal Project’s founder and leader, David Lane, maintained that Robinson is “brilliant.”
“I don’t know what’s truth and untruth in terms of the allegations against him, but I don’t regret all that we did,” said Lane. “He was fantastic.” Robinson also admitted that he enjoyed transgender porn. He has notoriously called for the arrest of trans bathroom users and the murder of LGBTQ+ individuals.
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