As part of his re-election bid, President George W. Bush attempted to reach black voters through their churches. He attended Sunday services, rocked to the choirs, courted black ministers and held several meetings with them to discuss the issues of most concern to the black community. These preachers, representing churches across the country, claimed to remain non-partisan and opened their ears to listen to what the president had to say. Many even developed personal relationships with him.

Now, as the black community faces one of our greatest challenges –- coming together and rebuilding with our brothers and sisters who lost their homes, their jobs and, in many cases, their loved ones, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast -- the question has to be asked:  Can the black ministers that have stood with Bush get him to deliver on his promise to rebuild the Gulf Coast and uplift the poor?

Many of the ministers who have developed a working relationship with the president say they do so in the interest of the black community. It makes sense; time can be spent pointing out what the president does wrong or energy can be put towards working with him and his staff to develop programs that address poverty, lack of access to health care, education and more. Reverend Eugene Rivers III of Boston and Bishop Andrew Merritt of Straight Gate International Church in Detroit are among those who have met with Bush and discussed such programs. The ministers must be careful, though, to ensure they are not pawns in the Republican party’s plan to capture a larger share of the black vote and that they are not being used to demonstrate to the public that President Bush does, in fact, “care about black people.”

On September 5, during his tour of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, President Bush stood with Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder of the 30,000-member Potter’s House, a mega-church in Dallas, Texas. Jakes would later deliver the sermon at the Washington National Cathedral, as part of a national day of prayer for Hurricane Katrina's victims. Bush then met with other black preachers from across the country, including Bishop Roy Winbush from Louisiana. Cynicism aside, it’s hard to believe that these events aren’t calculated. On September 2, during his first tour of the Coast, the president stood with the white Republican governors of Mississippi and Alabama; he did not venture into New Orleans to see the devastation there. When public grumblings about race and the role it played in the incompetent way Katrina’s aftermath was handled grew louder, the president began to appear with and talk to his black friends from the religious community.

Having just visited Baton Rouge and witnessing the despair first-hand -- thousands of people, most of them black, packed into shelters, dressed in unkempt clothes, many of them appear ill -- I can only hope that President Bush’s dealings with black ministers are sincere. The black church has always had the ears and trust of the black community; this is especially true during times of tragedy. To take advantage of that relationship to gain future votes would add further insult to injury.

The religious leaders that have Bush’s ear must hold him to his word. If he reneges, they should publicly disassociate themselves from him. Katrina’s victims need an authentic unity, one that will deliver sustainable results so they can reconstruct their lives.
 
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Judge Greg Mathis is Chairman of the Rainbow PUSH-Excel Board and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.