WASHINGTON (AP)—Home Speaker Mike Johnson and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries stood collectively just lately on the annual Nationwide Prayer Breakfast—a possibility, within the phrases of 1 introductory speaker, to “put our political variations apart.”
The variations are huge between Johnson, a staunchly conservative Republican, and Jeffries, a hero to liberal Democrats. However on the prayer breakfast earlier this month, they collegially took turns studying Scripture, evoking how their shared Christianity confronts evil.
It was a fleeting second of unity for the 2 Baptist leaders, who work side-by-side within the Home however are miles aside politically and theologically. Jeffries, 53, whose religion is rooted within the Black social gospel, has not been shy—simply not as outspoken as Johnson relating to the function religion performs in his political duties.
Jeffries spoke in depth with the Related Press about his non secular upbringing, which was centered at Cornerstone Baptist Church within the New York Metropolis borough of Brooklyn. He declined a number of invites to touch upon present-day dynamics within the Home, together with the lingering cross-party tensions introduced on by Donald Trump’s presidency and efforts to contest the 2020 election.
Nevertheless, Jeffries’s non secular dedication whereas in workplace has been observed by his political friends.
“There’s nothing that the general public can detect extra clearly than sincerity, particularly younger folks—they know once you’re actual. When it comes to being an individual of religion and justice, Hakeem Jeffries is actual,” stated former Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi.
Jeffries, a New York Democrat who turned minority chief in November 2022, handed the speaker’s gavel to Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, on October 25.
Past that ceremonial second, the 2 hardly work together in public. When pressed at a latest information convention to characterize their relationship, Jeffries stated it was “practical.”
Johnson, 52, is a Southern Baptist—one of many white conservative evangelicals who’re the bulk in America’s largest Protestant denomination. Whereas celebrated by many on the Christian proper, Johnson’s expressions of religion and previous authorized advocacy have confronted in depth scrutiny, together with his positions towards abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
For anybody interested in his views, Johnson instructed Fox Information host Sean Hannity, “Go choose up a Bible off your shelf and browse it—that’s my worldview.”
Jeffries is also deeply accustomed to the Bible. For instance, he has shared on social media a passage from the New Testomony’s Ebook of Ephesians evoking the necessity to “wrestle…towards religious wickedness in excessive locations.”
Jeffries’s management within the Home traces again to his formative days rising up and serving at Cornerstone, a traditionally Black congregation that he nonetheless attends.
“It definitely was an necessary a part of my mom’s life, and subsequently my youthful brother’s and myself,” he instructed the AP.
In its heyday, Cornerstone was the religious dwelling for a lot of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of enslaved African People who fled to Brooklyn from the South for higher alternatives, together with war-industry jobs. The church has lengthy been a part of the Nationwide Baptist Conference, the most important Black denomination within the U.S.
Cornerstone—and the Black church extra broadly—taught Jeffries the right way to construct consensus, stated civil rights chief the Rev. Al Sharpton, who met Jeffries as a younger lawyer. Navigating competing in-house constituencies and various personalities gave him the temperament wanted to steer a various, complicated physique of individuals, Sharpton stated.
“He turned dedicated to doing what he thought was proper, somewhat than doing what was politically advantageous for his personal profit,” Sharpton added.
In his youth, Jeffries turned considered one of Cornerstone’s white-gloved, dues-paying ushers, tending to crying infants and dealing with neighborhood visitors points throughout worship providers. Jeffries stated being an usher “taught me the right way to depend, have interaction and serve.”
Jeffries stated his maternal grandmother, a longtime Cornerstone member, typically shared a prediction: “I feel at some point you’re going to be a preacher.”
Her grandson took one other path of service, however Jeffries did make sure to get the blessing of two Brooklyn pastors, together with Cornerstone’s, earlier than coming into his first New York legislative race.
Over the many years, Jeffries has been impressed by quite a few Black leaders whose civil rights advocacy was fueled by their interpretation of the Gospel. Amongst them was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.—a good friend of Jeffries’s childhood pastor, the Rev. Sandy F. Ray.
Harry S. Wright, Cornerstone’s pastor after Ray’s demise in 1979, stated Jeffries’s upbringing on the church formed him for a lifetime of service.
“The emphasis was on being an exquisite particular person…with an thought that you simply make your life depend for one thing together with your dedication to make the world higher,” Wright stated. “Along with his drive, coaching, and genius, he simply received into the fitting lanes, and we see the fruit of it within the sort of particular person that he’s at this time.”
Jeffries got here of age throughout an uptick in police brutality instances in New York and elsewhere. He stated his determination to attend legislation college, and dedicate himself to the combat for racial justice, was motivated by the 1992 acquittal of 4 white policemen in Los Angeles after they’d been proven on video brutally beating an African American man, Rodney King.
After getting his legislation diploma, Jeffries spent 10 years in non-public follow earlier than successful a seat within the New York State Meeting in 2007.
Since coming into Congress in 2013, Jeffries has been true to his roots. As an example, he was lead sponsor of a 2015 measure outlawing police use of the chokehold and different techniques hindering an individual’s respiration.
Early in his congressional profession, when Jeffries wanted assist injecting theology into considered one of his speeches, he requested for recommendation from Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.).
Cleaver, an ordained United Methodist minister, stated that sort of deference to himself and towards late former colleagues like John Lewis, John Conyers, and Elijah Cummings, endeared Jeffries to the Congressional Black Caucus.
“You already know, this man appears somewhat bit completely different,” Cleaver recalled telling a colleague. “One of many issues I preferred was he wasn’t making an attempt to (put on) his Christianity on his sleeve.”
Pelosi stated she hopes that Democratic success in November will allow Jeffries to assert her former place as speaker of the Home. She depicted him as a person of deep religion who believes there’s a spark of divinity in everybody.
That ethos, Pelosi stated, is obvious in “Hakeem’s perspective, his language, and the remaining, and in reality, his stunning speech from the Bible on the rostrum when he was handing over the gavel to the brand new speaker–which he’ll be receiving again in about 10 months.”
In that speech, Jeffries stated, “Each time we now have confronted adversity, the excellent news right here in America is that we now have at all times overcome…That’s the reason America stays the final finest hope on Earth.”
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