Right and Wrong: Black Preachers and the Intersections of Morality and Public Policy

Over the past several years there has been a notable increase in instances of African Americans mobilizing around conservative “morality” based policies such as opposition to same-sex marriage, birth control, gambling and abortion. This is significant because while there are conservative strands in black church traditions, black churches have typically supported progressive policies when they are actively engaged in the policy making process. In direct reaction to this increase in conservative “morality politics” in Black communities, there has also been the increasing use of a “morality” discourse to support progressive policies such as expanding voting rights, addressing police brutality and increasing the minimum wage - issues that more closely resemble the issues around which African Americans have traditionally mobilized. To explore the boundaries of black morality politics, we administered a survey to 100 black faith leaders. This paper examines the attitudes of these faith leaders regarding morality and public policy. The survey reveals that black faith leaders view a number of issues, not typically thought of as morality issues (e.g. mass incarceration, education and police brutality), through a lens of morality. It also revealed that many of these faith leaders held both progressive morality and socially conservative perspectives at the same time.