The District Chronicles

Issue date: 1/6/08 Section: Cover

COLUMBIA, S.C. - If it's true that a house divided cannot stand, then black churches across South Carolina should be shaking. Take, for instance, this city's Bible Way Church of Atlas Road. The black megachurch's pastor, the Rev. Darrell Jackson Sr., is a paid consultant for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

In the pews, longtime Bible Way parishioner Anton J. Gunn directs the statewide political operation of Clinton's main rival, Sen. Barack Obama. The congregation as a whole, some 10,000 strong, sits somewhere in the middle, according to both men.

Both candidates will need all the support they can muster from the black community to win South Carolina's crucial Jan. 26 presidential primary, a contest destined to play a significant role in determining the Democratic nominee. And in a state where half of all primary voters are African American - a large majority of whom attend worship services three times or more each month - the road to the White House runs straight through black churches.

It's not unusual to see Democrats hunting for votes in black houses of worship. Churches have long been the center of African-American communal and civic life, especially in the South.

"You hunt where the ducks are," said Scott H. Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. "African Americans in South Carolina are highly religious, they're in church."

But this year's Democratic field, which pits a charismatic black man against a woman who bears a trusted family name, divides the loyalties of black churches and churchgoers - especially women - like no election in recent history. A September state poll found that 31 percent of black women favored Clinton, 31 percent Obama and 33 percent were undecided. December polls show Obama surging ahead among African Americans and Clinton clinging to an overall lead in South Carolina.

"Is it the woman's turn or is it the African American's turn?" asked Tracy Thompson, a 30-year-old criminal justice instructor, as she stood in Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the tug-of-war extends well beyond South Carolina's borders, said John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "The idea of having a black president is really attractive, and so is the idea of having a woman president, so a lot of African-American women are struggling with the question: Which way do I go?"

Continued...

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