This page was last updated on April 5, 2013.
Combined churches can do good; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; April 5, 2013. Though my friends have fun at my expense by referring to him as my “Cousin Lonzie,” I am not related to Mr. Cox.
Most of Mr. Cox’s at least 85 letters since 2004 are tinged with race, and all take leftist positions. The most recent previous Cox letter I critiqued was “Blacks still ignored.” You can find more Cox letters in the archives (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004).
When it comes to race issues, Mr. Cox is pretty tolerant if you share his leftist ideology. For example, Mr. Cox had no problem with the late-Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a former KKK officer, but referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an “Uncle Tom.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“The tension and danger of the Civil Rights Movement was real. Segregation ruled. Discrimination by race was the law. Simply buying a hamburger in a St. Louis restaurant once posed a serious physical threat to me personally … in my brand new Air Force uniform.”
[RWC] See if you notice what Mr. Cox fails to mention.
“In an 1852 speech, Frederick Douglass once stated that slavery would not last a year if the powerful white churches opposed it. Instead some mainline Protestant denominations encouraged slavery and have since apologized. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail was a response to local clergy who criticized King and the movement for local civil strife. His response was ‘no ... we won’t stop.’
“Attending the Harrisburg voter suppression protests last summer, I noticed many of the speakers were black clergy who seem to naturally respond to such crises.”
[RWC] By “voter suppression,” Mr. Cox is referring to PA’s requirement that voters present photo ID to vote. As for “many of the speakers were black clergy who seem to naturally respond to such crises,” there’s a better explanation than Mr. Cox’s. It’s all about politics. FactCheck.org reports black voters have been voting overwhelmingly for Democrat presidential candidates since at least 1936. Further, FactCheck.org asserts, “No Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the black vote since … [President] Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.” You can learn more in my critique of “Blacks still ignored.”
“During the civil rights movement, however, there was noticeable support from white ministers, priests and rabbis. The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh from Notre Dame was active in the anti-war and civil rights movements, and at the Selma voting rights demonstrations there were nuns and priests, one of whom was killed along with Viola Liuzzo of Detroit.
“All that changed when the Rev. Jerry Falwell convinced his cronies that maintaining segregation was the Christian thing to do. Falwell’s Moral Majority was that day’s mindless Teabagger class. The big Protestant church groups may yet be influential if called upon as a force for right. The white and black churches combined can yet save America from itself.”
[RWC] The Moral Majority was founded by Mr. Falwell in 1979, more than a decade after the period Mr. Cox described. I’m not an expert on the Moral Majority (disbanded in 1989), so perhaps Mr. Cox can provide some examples of the Moral Majority supporting segregationist policies. While he’s at it, perhaps Mr. Cox can provide examples of the “tea party” supporting segregationist policies.
When Mr. Cox writes of “teabaggers,” could this be an example of projection? <g>
I could be wrong, but by “a force for right” Mr. Cox means “a force for leftism.”
Did you notice what Mr. Cox failed to mention? For the most part, Mr. Cox’s Democrat party was (is?) the party of segregation. I don’t understand why Mr. Cox allows himself to be used by these people. As I noted above, Mr. Cox even covered for the late-Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a former KKK officer, while throwing slurs at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Please read “Lefty race baiters,” “Democrats – The party of civil rights – not,” and “Republicans – Civil Rights.”
© 2004-2013 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.