For the life of me I can not concur nor agree with the position taken today March 3, 2004 by NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume and his Washington, DC Bureau Director Hilary O. Shelton on the U.S. House of Representatives 183-232 vote rejecting the Woolsey Amendment, retaining the “so-called” discriminatory “Faith-Based” provision of H.R. 3030, the Improving the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Act of 2003. I Am a person of reasonable education and knowledge, but I fail to understand the logic in denying the African American Faith-Based Church Community the same rights and privileges afforded to the European and AngloChristian, the Roman Catholic, the Jewish Synagogues and Mormon Churches that of utilizing Federal Government Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bonds (PAB) for financing and building facilities for and in their own communities; i.e., hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and commercial, industrial, public and community facilities.

To me the issues are as stark clear as black and white are in contrast. For the most part, African American communities are in short supply, missing or completely without their own hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and commercial, industrial, public and community facilities. Yet we are blinded by the possibility of some church sponsored institution’s receiving a paltry CDBG grant hiring within their own church community, when we have said nothing in all these years when those same church sponsored institutions have received thousands of billions of Federal Government Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bond dollars to finance and to build in their own communities hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and commercial, industrial, public and community facilities.

Why has the African American Faith-Based Church Community not utilized the same Federal Governmental Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bond financing mechanisms to pay for and build facilities for in their own communities; i.e., hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and commercial, industrial, public and community facilities? The answer may fall into the category of not knowing how the majority faith-based church communities had financed and built same in their communities. With that being given, two things become true such as that African Americans must go to others and patronize them if they want service, or in the alternative African Americans perish from a lack of knowledge.

I witnessed this phenomenon for some time and wondered why African Americans always seem to be left in the hands of secular entities to provide the same critical services delivered from hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and from commercial, industrial, public and community facilities that are provided to the numerical greater Anglo-European-Jewish American communities through their own private faith-based church sponsored institutions.

When it had become known how others financed and built their own communities, some of us in the Black Business Community asked each of the Year 2000 Presidential Candidates, through a National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) Questionnaire what their position was on creating the atmosphere for the African American Faith-Based Church Sponsored Institution Community to receive the same funding that Anglo-European Jewish American communities had received through their private faith-based church sponsored institutions.

That seemed to be a most logical question to ask each candidate. Only two of the many candidates of any political party responded. Democrat Bill Brady answered but he did not win the Democratic Primary. Republican George W. Bush responded, and not only did he become the 43rd U.S. President, but nine days after he took office on January 29, 2001 he signed the Faith Based and Community Initiative, details of which can be found at the hyper link
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news
/releases/2001/01/20010129-2.html.

This is very interesting, because for the three prior years my company Pacific Rim Development Group LLC had been battling with certain Clinton Administration officials for the rights of our faith-based client the Christian Methodist Episcopal Community Development Corporation (CMECDC), an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) duly authorized Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to be treated as similar CDFI’s which were sponsored by any Anglo, European or Jewish American Church organization.

The request was so simple to me, when I look around in any city in America and I see a Methodist Hospital, a Baptist Hospital, a Lutheran Hospital, a Mt. Sinai Hospital, etc that for the most part African Americans are only taken in under emergency conditions.

I see that same situation in the private church sponsored schools across America paid for with the same Federal Governmental Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bond financing mechanisms, of which Briarcrest School System, sponsored by the Briarcrest (Southern White) Baptist Church, in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee is the largest private school system in America.

Yet, with all due respect, I have not heard a peep nor a whimper from Mr. Kweisi Mfume nor the NAACP protesting the Federal Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bond dollars supporting the creation of those entities which can discriminate in hiring based upon their preference of hiring according to a person’s religion background.

When former U.S. House of Representatives member Congressman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma sponsored the Faith-Based Initiative to a vote in the Congress in July of 2001, each member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) voted against it except for Memphis, Tennessee Black Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. Maybe his vote in favor was because the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, the second oldest Black denomination in America, is headquartered in his Congressional District in Memphis. Or, maybe because Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. realized the dream of the CME Church to re open Collins Chapel CME Hospital in one of Memphis’ oldest Black communities. Or maybe because Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. sees the “BIG PICTURE,” therefore, he can be non-hypocritical complying with the tenets of Matthew 7:3-5.

Thus saying before Mr. Kweisi Mfume condemns the speck in our neighbor’s eye, let us remove the log blocking our own eyesight. Then and only then can we see clearly enough to criticize the possibility that even if various faith-based organizations may use religious discrimination as a shield for racial or gender discrimination, we may do so too.

Our own African American Faith-Based Institutions have not even had a dip in the Federal Government private money pool to enrich our own communities with hospitals, schools, colleges and houses, and commercial, industrial, public and community facilities, yet we would stop the flow of increased money on account of some peanut size grants.

Looking clearly, I would not want to force my Pastor to hire an atheist in my church nor in my church-sponsored program. That may be the reason why when a secular entity, with no God in the picture, runs a government program, the money does not even reach the people it’s intended to help. Why then should not Ecclesiastes 10:19 state that “… money answers all things” except for when a secular entity distributes, because when the money is spent the problem still remains. This issue is as fundamental as Judas volunteering to keep the money collected by the Disciples, and then stealing the money before it’s distributed.

Mr. Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP’s protesting this issue of possible religious discrimination in the future that you nor I nor anyone except God Knows for sure will or will not take place, should not be become the stumbling block for our African American Faith-Based Community Development Financial Institutions’ participating in rebuilding the African American Communities through financing our own African American businesses and people to do the work and earn a living as a part of our own Self-Help!

Be Blessed and Best regards,

HUD / CMECDC / International Indian Nations / H.E.A.T.

Housing /Development Consultant / Construction Manager

Pacific Rim Development Group, L.L.C.



John Eddie “J.J.” Jones, Senior Vice President

Housing, Development and Construction Management Services

4301 South Pine Street, Suite 401

Tacoma Mall Office Building
Tacoma, Washington 98409

Phone: 253-473-0515: Fax: 253-473-1671;

Email: pacrimd@.......