WaPo Profiles Black Pastor Who Supports Donald Trump
Pastor Darrell Scott of the New Spirit Revival Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was the subject of a Washington Post feature article on Monday.
The headline explains why: “What makes a black Cleveland pastor back Donald Trump?” And while the reporter was clearly outside his comfort zone, the reporting was “fair and even-handed,” according to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who later shared it with his followers on social media.
“Will wonders never cease?” Huckabee asked. “The Washington Post actually runs a fair and even-handed profile of a black Cleveland minister who backs Donald Trump, having known him for several years. He rejects the left’s attempts to paint Trump as a scary racist while doing nothing for the black community themselves except exploiting them for their votes. How did this narrative-buster slip past the WaPo editors?”
According to the report, Scott met Trump in 2011, when he first toyed with the idea of running for president. He said the would-be Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting agreed with his sentiments.
“Christianity gets a bad break,” he said. “We’re presented as being bigoted, narrow-minded people, and there seems to be no anger over this. When we oppose transgender bathrooms and same-sex marriage, we’re portrayed as the enemy.”
At one of the two Sunday services the Washington Post reporter attended, Scott introduced his congregation to another Trump supporter: Pastor Mark Burns. The South Carolina pastor will speak later this week at the Republican National Convention.
“Donald Trump asked him, personally, to speak at the convention tomorrow,” Scott said in what was reportedly a “rare in-church mention” of the candidate. “Think about that. This is a historic event. Think about all of the people who wanted to get on that stage—and Donald Trump asked him.”
The report noted that not everyone in Scott’s congregation was on-board yet. It also noted that polls suggested black voters are overwhelmingly leaning toward Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting Hillary Clinton. But it also acknowledged that many who had taken Scott’s message to heart were finding their lives were getting better.
