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On a forested county road east of the Sulphur Springs city limits, you’ll find East Caney Baptist Church. The Rev. LaVelle Hendricks pastors this congregation of about 50, located 90 miles northeast of Dallas. Now 166 years old, East Caney is the oldest African American church in Northeast Texas, according to Hendricks.
Hendricks stands firmly on the foundation of the Gospel, as well as that of the Civil Rights Movement. A professor of counseling at nearby Texas A&M University-Commerce, Hendricks has facilitated student tours of Civil Rights Movement historical sites in Alabama and Mississippi, and also helped bring former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young to the A&M-Commerce campus in 2017.
But when it’s time to preach the Gospel, Hendricks says, it’s all about the Bible.
“The church does not advocate politics,” Hendricks said. “We know that with our IRS standing, that we cannot use the church to foster an environment where we are trying to get people to vote certain ways. So we make sure that we are in compliance with what the law says.”
Despite that distinction, the Black church has always served as a cultural foundation that, inevitably, influences political life.
“It is critically important to understand that the Black church has always been the hub of the Black community,” Hendricks said. “The Black community has always looked to the Black church to provide them with guidance.”
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Worshippers at East Caney pay just as much attention to the character of politicians as their policy statements.
“I think about character, because Jesus showed us that he’s a God who loves, who uplifts – not stomp on, not degrade,” said Mynder Kelly, a retired educator.
Fellow church member Henry Ross describes his frustration with people of faith endorsing candidates who seem dishonest or uncharitable.
“It’s very disturbing to me when I hear certain religions agree with a candidate that is not speaking the truth or speaking love,” Ross said. He also hears an uncomfortable echo in rhetoric that focuses on blame or exclusion.
“When I hear a particular candidate talk about sending individuals back to where they came from, or disparaging comments about a group, it takes me back to growing up in Birmingham, Alabama,” Ross said.
Many worshippers at East Caney are old enough to have had at least some personal experience with the Civil Rights era. That commitment to social justice is a shared heritage in the Black church.
But the Black church has always been churches, plural. And those churches display a broad range of relationships to that shared heritage. Jason E. Shelton, a University of Texas at Arlington professor, recently discussed his new book, “The Contemporary Black Church: The New Dynamics of African American Religion,” on Texas Standard.
“When you think about the Civil Rights Movement, it was disproportionately led by Black Baptists and Methodist preachers,” Shelton said. “And they both tend to lean to the Democratic side.”
That’s not the case with many of the growing number of non-denominational Black churches.
“African Americans who move to the non-denominational Protestant tradition are twice as likely than the Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostals to vote for Republican presidential candidates,” Shelton said. “That’s where there are some big political, social and cultural changes that are rooted in cultural changes that are taking place in Black America.”
University of Texas government professor Eric McDaniel sees the same dynamics.
Former President Donald Trump “has pulled in a large number of Black ministers, and a lot of his ministers are associated with what we referred to as the prosperity gospel,” McDaniel said. “There are a growing number that are going to argue that abortion and gay rights are much more important than voting rights … and racial equality.”
Hendricks preaches a version of the Gospel that takes a nuanced view of material wealth.
“The word of God says it is our riches sometimes that entangles us into a world of sin,” Hendricks said. “Have all the money that you want to. But guess what? Our clock is ticking. And one day, our card is going to be punched, and I can’t take anything with me, but I have to stand before Christ one day – all I want to hear him finally say is ‘Well done.’”
Hendricks said some area churches will be helping provide transportation to polling sites during early voting, which starts Monday, and on Election Day.
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