Featured photo: Pastor Alfred Harris of Saints of God Church, who is the president of Concerned Pastors for Social Action
Written by Tanya Terry
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers meets on Monday Nov. 23 to vote on certifying election results for the state which carries 16 electoral votes towards the presidential election. The meeting will be held virtually at 1 p.m. at YouTube.com/MichSoSOffice.
Pastors and Democratic elected officials recently held a press conference at Berston Fieldhouse in order to voice their opposition to the State Republican leaders meeting with President Donald Trump Nov. 20. According to a Nov. 20 article in the Guardian and other sources, The Trump campaign’s apparent strategy is to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures in Michigan and other battleground states in the electoral college to set aside the will of the people and declare Trump the winner, despite officials declaring it the most secure election in American history. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a complaint on behalf of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and three Detroit residents in a lawsuit challenging Trump and the Trump Campaign’s ongoing efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, saying in doing so they were disenfranchising Black voters in Michigan. The pastors and elected officials who gathered in front of Berston Fieldhouse said they would not accept any changes in the Michigan election results.
“This is a moment like when John Lewis marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” said Pastor Chris Martin of Cathedral of Faith Ministries.
“These officials have to decide their place in history,” Martin added. “Are they on the list that includes the marchers, or are they on the list that includes the police officers on horses who nearly beat to death the marchers marching for the simple right to vote?”
Martin said Representative Lee Chatfield and Senator Mike Shirkey, who met with Trump Nov. 20, would get to pick the list on which their names would appear in history. He acknowledged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s restriction under the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and said it was to keep Michiganders safe in the wake of a global pandemic the country has not seen anything like in over 100 years.
“Instead of our Congressional leaders working with our elected governor to combat small business loss, the amount of deaths that are going on in the state and close the gap of health care disparities among people of color, they instead of decided to go to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president of the United States to see how they could overturn a legal election,” Martin said. “What we say to the two leaders of the Congressional House and Senate is ‘work with Governor Gretchen Whitmer; our governor-to make sure that racial and healthcare disparities gaps are closed and that people can receive the type of healthcare that they need, that small businesses can receive financial relief, that people who are going through hard times right now can have faith that their government will work for them and will work to support them.’”
Martin pointed out similar press conferences were held in Grand Rapids and in Detroit. He said the leaders gathered there sent a call to Chatfield and Shirkey to “do their jobs.”
“This is not a partisan issue, and we expect Republicans to work and work across the aisle with our elected Democratic leaders to make sure that the needs of Michiganders are safe.”
Pastor Alfred Harris of Saints of God Church, who is the president of Concerned Pastors for Social Action said Trump’s “deceiving and destruction agenda fuels his actions which insult the very foundation of democracy in our nation.”
Harris criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Harris also said he lost his uncle, aunt and sister-in-law due to COVID-19 and said those who had lost their lives due to COVID-19 were more than mere statistics.
“I wish your response to the president’s invitation would have been Mr. President, Mr. Biden won and is the president-elect of the United States of America; would you please, as commander and chief, facilitate the transition of administration in the best interest of our nation?” Harris said to the house speaker and senate majority leader who met with the president.
Mayor Sheldon Neeley, who also spoke at the press conference, said the impact of the gathering was making sure democracy rules.
“We have to come together as one nation in positive movement forward,” he said. “So, it’s very important for all of us to stand united to that effort and make sure democracy is given.”
Chatfield and Shirkey said in a joint statement after their meeting with Trump: “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.”
Martin said although he had to have faith Chatfield and Shirkey would do the right thing, he felt going to Washington sent the wrong message.
