Are you there, God? It's me, Detroit

[sg9018]

I can't believe no one posted this yet. Bill Mcgraw hs a great article about Detroit politicians turn to God everytime there is trouble. I can't stand any politician who thinks they are some divine ruler. You are a 21st century politician, not a "divine" monarch.
Article here

June 18, 2009



Are you there, God? It's me, Detroit

BY BILL MCGRAW
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST What is it with some Detroit politicians and God?

City Councilwoman Monica Conyers is only the latest public official to summon the Almighty when the going gets tough.

On Tuesday, when it became clear the feds were closing in on Conyers, she described herself to viewers of her weekly TV show as “a child of God," and told viewers "if you're not praying for me, then you're just adding to the problem."

Then she added: "All these things that are going on right now ... I believe in my heart that God will deliver me from them."

C’mon, councilwoman. God is not going to help with a federal bribery rap. God doesn’t work that way. Just ask Kwame Kilpatrick.

Nobody in memory called on God as often as the disgraced mayor. And the number of his heavenly shout-outs seemed to increase last year as the pressure grew greater.

When Kilpatrick was in trouble and refusing to resign, he mentioned God so much you’d have thought He was deputy mayor. And in the end, God did not help Kilpatrick. He had to resign, go to jail, forfeit his law license, move to Texas, rent a house in a fancy suburb and buy an Escalade.

When Kilpatrick first got in trouble in January 2008, he staged a televised address to Detroiters from an empty room in a church. He once described himself as “God’s guy.� Another time last year, he said: “I believe I’m on an assignment from God.�

While deciding whether to run for mayor the first time, Kilpatrick -- then 30 -- said he went to his basement and sought wisdom by opening a Bible. Of all passages, he has said, he stumbled upon Second Samuel, in which David is depicted taking control of Judah — at age 30.

Right.

Many public officials beyond Detroit are into God, too, of course. Few U.S. Presidents have been as openly religious as George W. Bush, for example. Bush once told a friend, the Rev. James Robinson: “I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me.�

And numerous city pols are not so quick to invoke God.

Mayor Coleman Young even mocked the practice.

“I think people who go around solemn-faced and quoting the Bible are full of [[it),� he once said.

During the Kilpatrick drama last year, Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said: “The mayor says that he serves God and he speaks to God and he's chosen by God, so hopefully those who also say that they have been chosen by God, if they speak to him … then maybe God will speak to the mayor and he will step down.�

The following is a brief compilation of Deity references in Detroit politics over the past 20 years. We’ll start, of course, with Monica Conyers, who runs a close second to Kilpatrick in bringing up God when jail time could be in the future.

“More of the council members need to understand that that I’m not a baby, and that for some reason God wanted me to be president pro tem and not the others.�

— Monica Conyers, the first guest on Kwame Kilpatrick’s cable access show last year, answering Kilpatrick’s question about why she was fighting with her colleagues.

“I think I will be a great president because God does not give you more than you can handle.�

— Monica Conyers, explaining last year how she would cooperate with Mayor Ken Cockrel after she had called him Shrek.

“Leadership is a B. But, the rewards make the challenge worth our commitment to our God and our people. YOU ARE CHOSEN. Let’s roll. MOM.�

— U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, in a 2003 text message to her son, Kwame Kilpatrick.

“The door is finally closed on the last lingering issue from my first term in office. Our City deserves all of our attention and for my part as Mayor, I will dedicate my life to transforming Detroit into the city we all know it can become and that God intended for it to be.�

— Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2007, saying he had searched his soul and decided to pay $8 million to settle the whistle-blower lawsuit against him and the city. The Free Press later revealed that Kilpatrick’s “last lingering issue� in reality was settled, in part, to hide his own bad behavior. The newspaper obtained his text messages, which had been buried in that settlement, and they proved Kilpatrick and his chief of staff had perjured themselves in court.

“I get my direction from up there. When I first came into this office, I made an announcement that I was taking God into City Hall. … I will not be vindictive because God never gave me that option.�

— City Clerk James Bradley, in 1992, when he was under fire for widespread voting problems.

"Some people are rooting for me. God is good."

— Darralyn Bowers, who spent more than two years in prison over Detroit's Vista Disposal scandal in the 1980s, in a 1992 deposition when she was facing government claims that she lied in a bankruptcy filing to dodge a tax bill of more than $300,000.

“With God as my witness, I swear I did not do that."

—Police Chief William Hart, defending himself from allegations in 1989 that the department's undercover operations fund may have subsidized $72,000 in rent on his daughter's former residence in Beverly Hills, Calif. Hart later was convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing $2.3 million from the fund.

“We keep saying Council President Erma Henderson. We're doing something wrong. The Lord is really confused with us this morning. We should be saying Mayor-elect Erma Henderson.�

—The Rev. Rodney Parnell, at a 1989 rally for mayoral candidate Erma Henderson, the longtime city council president who was taking on Mayor Coleman Young. She lost in the primary.

“Elected officials are all capable of errors in judgment. God knows that I am, and I am comforted in that I have asked for forgiveness.�

— City Councilwoman Kay Everett, in a September 2004 op-ed article scolding her colleagues for passing a resolution on creating an African Town development in Detroit. Everett was indicted the next month on 27 counts of extortion and bribery. She died of kidney disease the month after that.

And, finally, here is an example of a politician referring to the Creator for magnanimous reasons. Of course, he was talking in a church.

“We share the same God. And the great thing is that God is a forgiving God.�

— Then-Mayor Dennis Archer, who was appearing at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church days after his 1993 election, after a divisive this campaign in which the Rev. Charles Adams, the Hartford pastor, had said suburbanites “want a mayor to shuffle when he’s not going anywhere, scratch when he’s not itching and grin when he’s not tickled.� The line was a slam against Archer. Adams apologized several days after his comment.
Contact BILL McGRAW: bmcgraw@freepress.com

http://www.freep.com/article/2009061...+s+me++Detroit

[atl_runner]

If some white repulican did it, the masses would be all over it, but when a black democrat does it, it largely goes unnoticed. Just one of those 'thangs'

On that note, these days, religion, not patriotism, is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

[Bigb23]

“With God as my witness, I swear I did not do that."

—Police Chief William Hart, defending himself from allegations in 1989 that the department's undercover operations fund may have subsidized $72,000 in rent on his daughter's former residence in Beverly Hills, Calif. Hart later was convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing $2.3 million from the fund.

That's up there with Bill Clinton, but I would have to say that Chief Hart was lying on a grander scale, per smaller constituency.

[rb336]

If some white repulican did it, the masses would be all over it, but when a black democrat does it, it largely goes unnoticed. Just one of those 'thangs'.

what a stupid thing to say, in light of it being all the talk -- each of those items -- when it happened

On that note, these days, religion, not patriotism, is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

both are and both always have been

[Bobl]

It never ceases to amaze me that each time a politician is caught with his hands in the cookie jar, the religion card is played.
Here, in Detroit, the politician will often approach the Baptist Ministers for their aid and comfort. This should embarrass the politician, the ministers, and the voters.

[buildingsofdetroit]

Hazen S. Pingree wouldn't stoop to such despicable, tired political rhetoric.

[Bearinabox]

Hazen S. Pingree wouldn't stoop to such despicable, tired political rhetoric.

You know you're in trouble when you've got to go back a hundred years to find an example of halfway decent political leadership.

[Sstashmoo]

They appease to the spirituality of the base. As tinhorn as it is, it works. That's why they do it.

[Retroit]

Oh, Moronica Conyours, I'll pray for you!!!

I'll pray that you die and burn in eternal hell.

[daddeeo]

I'd say this city is almost god forsaken.

[ejames01]

What a horrible thing to say!!!! To wish death of a person because they are an idiot is pretty sick.

Oh, Moronica Conyours, I'll pray for you!!!

I'll pray that you die and burn in eternal hell.

[kathy2trips]

Hazen S. Pingree wouldn't stoop to such despicable, tired political rhetoric.

AMEN! He wasn't the "idol of the people" for nothing.

[MIRepublic]

The difference here is that while this worked in the past, it's becoming increasingly clear that it's not working much anymore. I hope people are seeing the change, because it's definitely happening and happening surprisingly quickly.

[jefferson78]

The people of Detroit are the ones who should be asking for Gods forgiveness.
They were the ones who voted these clowns into office.
If you do not learn from your mistakes, Maybe you should turn to God asking
for strength in overcoming that behavior.
I do not believe God takes sides but He does not want us to destroy ourselves.

[lilpup]

God's been trying to teach but some are slow learners.

[Danny]

That's right lillpup and jefferson78,

The people of Detroit should plea for God's forgiveness for acting like the Biblical Citizens of Nineveh, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah. However they should question or put God into a test of his will and wonders. If ALL Detroit Churches, Mosques and a Downtown Synagogue gather toghether, hold hands in fellowship and pray in unity, Then our city don't have to be in this mess.

For years, lots of Detroit corrupted politicians had pleaded with God for forgiveness. While God does forgives and forgets our trangressions. Our Detroit politicians MUST start over with their life after they have be claimed to be saved to recieve their smiling faces from the joy of savlation. Confessing their mistakes and forgiving others authorities is the first primary step to heal their broken vessels and grow in grace within Jesus. Without this kind of techinque, they would backslide and mock the Lord.

KING KWAME tried to do this urban propaganda trick by forgiving Detroiters in his church on local T.V. but it's up to the Detroiters to either accept ot reject his apology. Now King Kwame is out of office and living happily ever after in Dallas, TX. He's going to have to take a graceful step to stay forgiven or blackslide back to old ways.

How long is our Detroit city leaders are going to plead God and Detroiters to accept their forgiveness? Surely God will accept their forgiveness, but their forgiveness to the Detroiters is for their votes when election year loomes in their face.

[GOAT]

Conyers is nothing but a pig! I hope she rots in jail for 40 years.

[Swimmaven]

I'll bet Moronica Conyours doesn't read Detroit Yes.

[Lorax]

All the more reason to keep god out of our politics.

We have separation of church and state for a reason. Do we really need to find ourselves in the same position Iran does?

Any politician who invokes "god" into the secular political discourse is asking for it.

If I were sitting in on a clowncil meeting in Detroit, and "god" was brought up at all during a meeting, I would turn that conversation into a referendum on why we are a secular nation of laws. And push a motion forward to ban religious references from any and all council meetings.

The Ayatollah in Iran was circling the capital in a helicopter yesterday giving instructions to the military to shoot protesters on sight.

Nothing like promoting the beauty and claming influence of organized religion- at the point of a rifle.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "We have separation of church and state for a reason."

Yes, to keep government out of the church.

Quote: "Any politician who invokes "god" into the secular political discourse is asking for it."

Most of them do, I can't think of one President that did not or does not go to Church.

Quote: "The Ayatollah in Iran was circling the capital in a helicopter yesterday giving instructions to the military to shoot protesters on sight."

Give me a break, my sides are hurting.

[cheddar bob]

I can't think of one President that did not or does not go to Church.

Not surprising. You apparently haven't looked.

[Bobl]

Just watched a news item on Channel 2, featuring the National Baptist Convention which is in town. It appropriately began with a member, barking:

"Five dollars! Five dollars! Only five dollars, right here!"

Don't know what he was selling, but it reminded me of the Detroit street walking prostitutes, back in the 1960s. They did not pay taxes, either.

[Downtown diva]

Oh, Moronica Conyours, I'll pray for you!!!

I'll pray that you die and burn in eternal hell.

Retroit

you have spelled her name wrong on several occasions.

it's conyers

[Sludgedaddy]

In all fairness and in the spitit of Universal Cultural Diversity, maybe a shout-out to all the world's pantheon of divinities would be in order.

Possibly a human sacrifice in the ruins of Detroit's Vanity ballroom, which was built with an Aztec motiff, would foot the bill.

And according to H.P Lovecraft, there's always Cthulu.

[LeannaM]

Politicians love to throw God around.

If I were God, I'd be awfully tired of it by now.

If you break the law, you should be punished. God will forgive you. However, the justice system still has to do its job. A sin forgiven does not equate avoiding consequences here on earth.