Where it matters most — down in the soul — Herman Cain is one of them. Always will be.
When he’s home in Atlanta, he’s among friends at Antioch Baptist Church North, where he’s been a member for more than 30 years. Fellow members call him a good man, a brother in Christ, as solid as the very doors of the church.
It’s when he leaves town that some of that praise may get a little muted.
Cain, an Atlanta resident, is a Republican seeking the GOP nomination for president. He’s also a black man who attends a church whose majority African-American congregation has traditionally supported Democratic politicians.
For church members, Cain’s run for office is a point of pride — chagrin, too. He’s on a national stage, taking aim at President Barack Obama, who overwhelmingly carried the African-American vote in the 2008 election and still enjoys an 85 percent approval rating among blacks.
“As far as [Cain’s] politics goes, not everyone [in the church] agrees with that,” said church member Monroe Scott. “It’s kind of interesting to see a black man running against a black man.
“He’s a native son that we’ve known for many years,” said Scott, leaving services recently at the church near Northside Avenue, close to the Georgia Dome. “But this is kind of weird.”
Cain, 65, the son of a chauffeur, is a Morehouse College graduate who made his fortune as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. He’s an associate minister at Antioch North. Cain had a nationally syndicated radio show for three years until it went on hiatus in February so he could pursue the Oval Office. He declared his GOP candidacy for president in May.
Few political observers took Cain seriously until recently, when he eclipsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and others with more name recognition, in polls and became the top rival to the front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
At a tea party rally last week in Tennessee, supporters roared their support for Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, which proposes a 9 percent tax on personal income, a 9 percent flat tax on business and a 9 percent national sales tax.
Cain has said little about whether he can look to his own 14,000-member church for political support.
“He understands that everyone has their own political views,” said J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for the Cain campaign. “He respects that.”
Church members have been publicly mum about Cain, too.
The Rev. Cameron Alexander, who’s been pastor at the church for more than 40 years and is a longtime friend of Cain, did not respond to several interview requests. Other church members who did not want to be quoted said Cain’s political affairs are separate from his church activities.
Some, like Joe Beasley, a deacon, chose their words carefully.
“Mr. Cain is a friend of mine and a fellow church member,” said Beasley, the Southern director of Rainbow/PUSH, a social and civil rights organization created by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “I respect him for what he’s doing. I wish him well.”
The church, said Beasley, has a history of welcoming political candidates, Republican and Democrat. An Atlanta fixture for nearly 134 years, the church several years ago hosted Sonny Perdue, a Republican, when he was governor, Beasley said.
But it’s opened doors to far more Democrats. Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; U.S. Rep. John Lewis, famed for his civil rights activities; Jackson, who twice ran for president; and former Mayor Shirley Franklin, to name a few, have been guests at the church.
Former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, has been to Antioch several times. A visit to Antioch, said Barnes, “is like a homecoming.”
Church members, he said, do lean toward Democratic candidates. For Cain to win support among his own congregation, “he’ll have to prove himself,” Barnes said.
The hardest to sway may be the pastor himself. Alexander for years has been active in civil rights and other issues traditionally associated with the Democratic Party. He’s mentioned Malcolm X and Rosa Parks as influences in his life.
It’s too simple to say Alexander is a liberal, said the Rev. Gerald Durley, pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church.
“It’s not fair to pigeonhole him,” said Durley, who’s known Alexander for more than 30 years. “He [Alexander] supports many of the social causes that benefit people at Antioch and the surrounding areas.”
A 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Forum On Religion & Public Life determined that two-thirds of the members of historically black churches are Democrats. An additional 12 percent lean toward the Democratic Party, pollsters found.
Seven percent of church members considered themselves Republicans, with an additional 3 percent leaning toward the GOP, the poll determined.
Evangelical churches, where eight out of 10 members are white, were far more conservative, the forum found. Republicans, or those who identified with conservative causes, made up 50 percent of the congregation, the survey said.
The political leanings of African-American churches are no surprise to Allison Calhoun-Brown, a political science professor at Georgia State University.
Democratic candidates, she said, routinely court votes in African-American congregations.
“In black churches, you find [members with] all kinds of socioeconomic status,” said Calhoun-Brown, who’s studied the political influence of African-American churches in communities. “And that’s why they [Democratic politicians] love ... those churches.”
The people who go to Antioch Baptist North love Cain, said state Sen. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale. She joined the church in 1959, and remembers Cain as a young man.
“We’re all proud of him,” said Seay. “I’m sure he is led to serve, and I wish him the best.
“But I cannot vote for him,” Seay said. “My president is already in office.”
Jacquie Jenkins, who joined the church five years ago, echoed Seay.
“I know he’s running,” said Jenkins, who attends Lakeside Mission, a church Antioch Baptist North founded several years ago in south Atlanta. “But I am not voting for him.”
Beasley, who’s been in the church for decades, takes the long view about Antioch’s current political star. Cain may or may not get to the White House, but surely he will return to God’s house, Beasley said. And so church members don’t want political differences to compromise religious brotherhood.
“After the campaign is over,” he said, “Herman Cain will be back. He’ll be back in this church.”
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