As the 2016 presidential election draws near, more and more voters are getting a feel for which candidate they feel will do the best job in the White House. While many people of color have had just about enough of Donald Trump and all that he has to offer, a Black church in North Carolina is offering him their support.
The Antioch Road To Glory Ministries congregation recently shocked many of their followers and plenty others on social media when they shared a post on the church Facebook page announcing their decision to endorse Donald Trump for President. As expected, the post was met with a wave of criticism from the Facebook community. The church members say their decision stems from wanting something other than “more of the same” in the White House, referencing Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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They cited Hillary’s support of President Bill Clinton’s infamous 1994 Three Strikes crime bill as their primary reason for deciding not to endorse her for President. “We want to break away from more of the same,” Antioch member Katrina Rodgers says. Her father, who is the pastor of Antioch added that he doesn’t think Hillary is someone who should be leading the country given her past track record and says her support of the crime bill contributed largely to the mass incarceration of African-Americans that has since taken a devastating toll on the Black community.
The Antioch church congregation certainly isn’t the first group to take Hillary to task over her support of her husband’s crime bill 20+ years ago, as it has remained a focal point of criticisms throughout her 2016 presidential campaign thus far.
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Hillary has addressed the issue on several occasions over the course of the last year, admitting that the outcome of the bill had an adversely negative affect on the African-American community and vowing to keep criminal justice reform at the top of her priority list as president. “We have too many people in jail and in prison who committed low-level, nonviolent offenses,” she said at a Las Vegas town hall meeting in 2015. “And we have too many people who haven’t been convicted of anything but can’t afford bail and sometimes are there for months, if not years,” she added.
Hear more from the father daughter duo about why Antioch Road To Glory Ministries made the decision to join team Trump in the video clip below.