So here’s some thoughts for you related to the Sheriff’s election here in Charlotte that’s become such a controversy.
On December 6, the special election was held to elect Sheriff Jim Pendergrass’ replacement. A virtual unknown, Nick Mackey, won the election.
The Charlotte Observer had noted irregularities in Mackey’s background, most notably that Mackey resigned from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in 2003, after an investigation into allegations that he had lied about the hours he worked. Mackey denies wrongdoing; he has refused to release his personnel file.
Mr. Mackey, also a lawyer, has been ordered by a Mecklenburg judge to pay an ex-client $1,000 because his negligence allowed the man’s adoption of his step-daughter to fail.
In the midst of all of this, allegations of racism have been flying around like gnats in the Carolina summer. The Sheriff’s election was between a white man, Chipp Bailey, and a black man, Nick Mackey. So thanks to all of this alleged racism, the Great Pumpkin, the Rev. Al Sharpton, came to Charlotte and put in his two cents.
Everywhere Sharpton shows up, a racial frenzy follows shortly thereafter. Consider the following information:
In 1995, Al Sharpton chose to become a driving force in a campaign against Freddy’s Fashion Mart on 125th Street in Harlem. The proprietor of the clothing store, who rented his space from a black church, had offended Sharpton by trying to expand his clothing store into space then occupied by a black sub-tenant. Sharpton and his National Action Network turned this local dispute into a racial hurricane. Sharpton established a cordon of chanting picketers outside of Freddy’s and left things in the care of his trusted lieutenant Morris Powell, a former mental patient. Sharpton’s picketers ranted against the “Jew bastards” and “the blood-sucking Jews.”
Sharpton is one of those “pastors” who often reminds me of guys like Jerry Falwell; more often than not, he just needs to keep his mouth shut.
This isn’t a question of race or racism; it’s a question of integrity. Nick Mackey’s background is littered with questions about his integrity that are unanswered. I would be just as wary were Mr. Mackey white, Asian, or purple with green polka-dots and yellow wings.
And it doesn’t help to have an ostensibly “Christian” race-baiting jackass like “Rev.” Al Sharpton thrown into the mix. He is just as racist as any Klansman or member of the White Aryan Resistance. He stinks just as badly of racism as any white supremacist, and by his worlds and actions brings no honor to the risen Christ he claims to serve. He dares to stand in a pulpit of a Baptist church here in Charlotte to speak of politics, not of Christ and his redeeming work. It’s a mockery of Christianity, Christ, and god-fearing pastors all over the United States and in the South particularly, who stand against all racism. He either needs to preach Christ, or get out of the pulpit and the church.
Now, I may need to repent of calling the man a jackass, but I would argue that he needs to repent of racism.
Just something for ya’ll to chew on.
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During the early 1970s the IRS “proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency’s employees.”1