God and Bradley in Compton Politics

“My mother was a good friend of her [Congresswoman Janice Hahn] father’s, a loyal supporter. When I say ‘loyal,’ I mean loyal. Mr. Hahn’s picture was in my mother’s kitchen, next to Jesus and Martin Luther King.” – Mayor non-elect Omar Bradley

If anything exposes the most expansive problem in politics today, especially in the black community, it would be the collusion of politics, religion, and civil rights. For decades, since the “New Deal” Democracy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a number of African-American voters have looked to the state, to civic action, to government power to wrong all the rights, to turn their captivity, of sorts, from the slavery of the past into a free future.

Such thinking is contradictory and conflicted, and such double-mindedness contributes to a great deal of discouragement and disparagement, in my opinion.

In Christian circles, at least in sermon and sentiment, Jesus is supposed to be the preeminent power. According the Gospel accounts in the Christian Bible -- whether the reader regards them as historical, hysterical, or just plain histrionic -- Jesus is granted the first, full, and final precedence. On the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9: 1-8), Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah. When the apostle Peter saw the three, he presumed to place them all on the same level: “Let’s make three tents (or tabernacles) for all of you!” Yet the account then records that God the Father boomed above Peter’s fearful, awe-inspired pretence: “This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

Not the Law, not the Prophets, would be the inference, but the Son (for those who believe, at any rate). Today, voters are listening to preachers and politicians, promoting them to the status of “Savior”. If they are the saviors, then there is no need for Jesus, right? To combine all of them together just makes no sense. Strange, disturbing, and dysfunctional.

For those who adopt and adapt to the Christian faith, who can they adeptly step into a stance which places Jesus on the same plane as a civil rights leader or a politician?

Not just former mayor Omar Bradley, but even Congresswoman Janice Hahn has played the “religion” card before. She was even a guest speaker at the last Billy Graham crusade, held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 2004. Her story was stirring, how her older relatives left Canada to settle in the United States. She even shared a harrowing account of how her grandmother was so distraught with financial difficulties, that she attempted to kill herself and her children by asphyxiation in their little apartment. They all survived, nonetheless, by the grace of God.

Janice’s brother James Hahn was a welcome mayor of Los Angeles. I remember seeing him eat dessert with his son Jackson at five-and-dime in the Harbor Gateway. Unlike his arrogant celebrity-successor, James stepped down from the spotlight frequently. Janice, not so much.

Returning to the confusing collusion religious, politics, and civil rights: the third element does have a spiritual basis. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did good as a civil rights leader. Yet the preponderance of praise which voters give to men, while claiming religious fervor in God, seems misplaced and mistaken. If God cannot help us, of course people will look to “mere mortals” for help. If God sent His Son to be Savior of the World (per Christian circles), why for flesh and blood, which are easily upset and influenced by other sets of flesh and blood?

Bradley shared his disappointment regarding Congresswoman Hahn’s endorsement of mayor-elect Aja Brown:

“So Janice Hahn called me and said, ‘Omar, we have tested it out, and your support is very strong. But,’ she said, ‘they are making me endorse Aja Brown.”

Where’s the trust? Where’s the faith? Where’s the fidelity? How could Hahn hand Bradley so back-handed a backing? For some answers, perhaps Mr. Bradley should go back to the Bible, a book which must have held some esteem in his house, since his mother had Jesus’ picture on the wall:

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17: 5)

For special notice, the original Hebrew word “Cursed” has the deeper-rooted meaning of “embittered”, as I am certain Mr. Bradely is quite embittered that Janice Hahn, daughter of LA Supervisor (Savior?) Kenneth Hahn, revered by the Bradley clan, chose to endorse Bradley’s rival.

Mixing politics and religion and civil rights – how bitter that must make man indeed!