And let me be the first to condemn this glaring example of race-based politics used to attack a candidate for office.

When Steve Cohen, a black man, was elected last year to represent mostly white Memphis in Congress, it was seen as a sign that racial divisions were fading in this Southern city.

But less than a year later, Cohen is facing a movement led by white pastors and political activists to defeat him in 2008 and send a white representative to Washington instead.

"He's not white, and he can't represent me. That's the bottom line," the Rev. Robert Poindexter told a local newspaper after a meeting last week of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association at which Cohen was jeered and booed.

The hostile reception caught Cohen off guard and foreshadowed the challenge he is almost certain to face next year in his first bid for re-election.

* * *

But the preachers have also questioned whether a black man should even represent the 9th District, which is 60 percent white and 34 percent black.

"I don't care how people dress it up," Poindexter told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis. "It always comes down to race, and he can't know what it's like to be white."

Such blatantly racist and discriminatory behavior on the part of the evil Konservative Khristian Koalition RethigliKlans must be denounced and rejected by every decent American as a violation of the fundamental concept of racial equality which so many fought and died for. those who hold to such views must be expelled from the GOP. Sheet-head KKKlergymen like Rev. Robert Poindexter need to be driven from the pulpit by Christians who accept the teaching of Scripture that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, and the message of racial equality that underlies it.

Oh.

I see the story has been updated.

When Steve Cohen, a white man, was elected last year to represent mostly black Memphis in Congress, it was seen as a sign that racial divisions were fading in this Southern city.

But less than a year later, Cohen is facing a movement led by black pastors and political activists to defeat him in 2008 and send a black representative to Washington instead.

"He's not black, and he can't represent me. That's the bottom line," the Rev. Robert Poindexter told a local newspaper after a meeting last week of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association at which Cohen was jeered and booed.

The hostile reception caught Cohen off guard and foreshadowed the challenge he is almost certain to face next year in his first bid for re-election.

* * *

But the preachers have also questioned whether a white man should even represent the 9th District, which is 60 percent black and 34 percent white.

"I don't care how people dress it up," Poindexter told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis. "It always comes down to race, and he can't know what it's like to be black."

Of course, we know the party and the politics of those involved in this dispute. Liberal Democrats out playing race-ho and sowing the same sorts of divisions that the civil rights movement was about destroying. These so-called Christian leaders have turned the message of Dr. King on its head, and call for judging a man on the color of his skin, not the content of his character. It is a shameful move, and hearkens back to the racial policies of the Democrats in that part of the country only a few decades back.

Will the state or national party denounce such racial hate-mongering and expel the perpetrators from its midst, clearly stating that there is no place for racism in the party -- even if it means losing elections because of that principled stand? Will they forthrightly label the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association as a hate-group?

Will the people of these churches remove Rev. Robert Poindexter and his ilk from the pulpit and replace them with American patriots and believers in the equal rights and dignity of every person? Or will the false Gospel of race-hatred and discrimination remain accepted in the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, while the Gospel of Jesus Christ is repudiated by race-baiting heretics?

Now there may be many good reasons to vote for or against Steve Cohen. As a conservative Republican, I likely would reject him in favor of a candidate closer to my views on the issues. But I will not stand by and see the poison of race-hatred circulate in the body politic of my country.

And I ask Rev. Robert Poindexter and his fellow bigots in the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association is they will renounce the hatred and re-embrace the message of Martin Luther King and and Jesus Christ that tells us that racism is a vile, sinful contagion of the soul? Or will they have the courage of their convictions and call for Senator Barack Obama to withdraw from the race for the Democratic nomination for President -- and to resign from the US Senate because of his inability to properly represent the people of Illinois, who are over 75% white.

H/T Jay Nordlinger

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