Urban Christian Leaders Gather for NY Summit on Moral Values

by Ed Thomas and Jenni Parker
April 18, 2005

(AgapePress) - More than 125 Christian leaders from New York City and across the United States convened in the Big Apple last week to send a message about moral values to their political leaders.

Bishop Harry Jackson and the High Impact Leadership Coalition held a New York City summit and press conference on marriage and other moral issues, calling attention to the voice of the values voters. The New York City summit was one of several nationwide stops on the Coalition's tour schedule, during which the nonprofit Christian organization hopes to mobilize the ethnic Christian voters on behalf of biblically-based responses to the moral issues of the day, including homosexual "marriage" and abortion.

According to High Impact spokesman Mike Paul, the local and national Christian leaders wanted to emphasize their message again in strong terms well before the elections on tap between now and 2008. He says what they and their constituencies want their elected officials to know is, "if you are voting for gay marriage and against other moral values that we hold dear, then we will simply vote you out of office. And if you think that moral value issues were important in the 2004 election, you haven't seen anything yet."

Paul feels the message was particularly appropriate for the New York summit and press conference, considering the positions of many political leaders in the city and the state. He points out that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and some other New York State officials have recently made public statements indicating their willingness to honor same-sex marriages from other states.

"Every [New York City] candidate right now, including the city mayor, is in favor of same-sex marriage," the Coalition representative notes, "and as for the governor's race, Eliot Spitzer -- who has become a national figure going after big business -- is also for same-sex marriage."

Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church near Washington, DC, is the founder and chairman of High Impact Leadership Coalition. He says the organization seeks to combine righteousness and justice from a biblical perspective in an effort to educate and empower people in urban areas across America on critical moral issues.

Through the ongoing nationwide tour, the Coalition is promoting its "Black Contract With America on Moral Values," an effort Jackson describes as a campaign to provide biblical solutions to some of the biggest crises in urban America. The bishop contends that the Church must provide leadership in preserving America's moral compass and healing the nation.