LANHAM -- When Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr. meets with evangelical Christians to plot a strategy to "protect American family values," he is typically the only black face in the room.
Like white Christian conservatives, he argues that gay marriage is a threat to society, abortion is sinful and public policy requires a foundation of faith. Those beliefs, he says, can cure social problems within the black community far better than the programs or ideas of liberal thinkers.
With such views, Jackson and a small group of other pastors have sparked a debate on the future of the influential black church and its close historical ties with the Democratic Party.
Some veteran civil rights advocates, scholars and black clergy believe these ministers are being manipulated by a powerful, politically charged evangelical movement and lured to the Republican Party with faith-based grants. But conservative pastors insist their motivation is authentic, driven by a desire to help the black community.
In a speech last month that criticized the intersection of faith and politics, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond dubbed black clergy with close ties to President Bush the "faith-based grant party," who have been co-opted by the administration.
"I can't say for sure if it was Rev. Johnson or Rev. Smith, for example, but surely the lure of money has been powerful," he said in an interview. "I think it means, a minority has commanded the attention and money and exposure in the long competition for the allegiance of black Americans."
Critics like Bond warn that the black church risks losing its independence and abandoning its history of advocating for social justice.
But conservative pastors say government grants have nothing to do with their ideological beliefs.
"The notion that for the small amount of money these churches are getting would be enough to buy them is insulting off the bat," says the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, president of a Boston-based black clergy group called the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation. "Liberals have a hard time understanding preachers have IQs in the triple digits. They have taken us for granted for too long by assuming the black church is the property of the Democratic Party."
Jackson, who leads a congregation of 3,000 at Hope Christian Church in Lanham, asserts he wants to work with the largely white evangelical community to place social issues important to African-Americans such as prison reform and affordable health care on the national agenda.
Without a black voice among evangelical conservatives, Jackson says, he fears African-American issues will be ignored by policymakers.
So he has created a "Black Contract with America on Moral Values," which he says addresses the "moral crisis in the black community." He hopes to collect 1 million signatures for an agenda that brings together race, politics and religion in ways few traditional black clergy have.
"The increase in poverty, the increase in black unemployment, the disintegration of the black family," he says. "Babies are being born to single mothers, black babies are being aborted. ... We're losing our strength."
This conservative bent among a growing number of black church leaders seems to veer from the tradition of blacks voting Democratic, backing the party with a history of strong support for civil rights. Yet, African-Americans, particularly churchgoers, tend to be conservative on social issues, say political experts.
Bush's stance against gay marriage helped boost his share of the black vote from 8 percent in 2000 to 11 percent last year, says Ron Walters, political science professor and director of the University of Maryland's African American Leadership Institute.
While some may prefer the black church to be politically up for grabs, civil rights activists assert clergy are playing into the hands of a party whose policies hurt African-Americans.
"Bush's politics are like a wolf in sheep's clothing," says lifelong civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson. "I don't mind if ministers get faith-based grants, but that's no substitute for equal rights under law. We need to be concerned about major public policy matters."
He agrees with Walters that gay marriage was a wedge issue during last year's presidential campaign, bringing black conservatives into the evangelical fray.
"How did that get imposed on our agenda priorities?" he asks in an interview. "That's somebody else's agenda. Most black church members want laws to protect us from predatory lending, they want to fix the disparities in health care."
While Rivers and about 20 other black religious and community leaders met with Bush at the White House recently, traditional civil rights leaders complain they have been snubbed by the administration.
