Democratic convention chief wants reparations for blacks

Leah Daughtry

The woman commissioned by the Democratic Party to direct its presidential nominating convention in two weeks espouses the same black liberation theology pursued by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose church presumptive nominee Barack Obama was forced to leave because of its controversies.

Those included Wright's condemnation of America and a vicious attack on Hillary Clinton from the pulpit, and WND reported when, finally, the Obama campaign announced the candidate resigned his 20-year membership in the church.

Now a profile in the New York Times reveals Rev. Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister who leads a congregation of 20 in Washington, embraces "black liberation theology" beliefs such as the "debt" the U.S. "owes" all blacks for slavery.

The Times describes the congregation in which Daughtry was raised – the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., where generations of family members, including her father Herbert Daughtry, have preached for decades: "Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, 'They Owe Us.' Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry's arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology – the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons – and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her."

Judi McLeod, a former Toronto Sun columnist, opined it will be "Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a skirt" as Daughtry leads the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"While the media hounded Wright for his anti-American rants and while presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Hussein Obama divorced him as his personal pastor, Obama's head will be crowned by Leah Daughtry, who ardently believes in the same Marxist 'Black Liberation Theology' preached by Wright," McLeod wrote on Canada Free Press.

When Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced Daughtry's appointment to the post of convention CEO, he cited her "strong guidance, skilled leadership and counsel."

Dean noted Daughtry, his chief of staff, previously served at the U.S. Department of Labor as assistant secretary of administration and management during the Clinton administration.

"We are thrilled to have Leah Daughtry leading our 2008 Democratic Convention team," Dean said at her 2007 appointment.

"I am honored to be a part of this exciting endeavor," Daughtry said at the time.

McLeod writes, "Like Wright, Daughtry is in your face about her activism," noting Daughtry told the Capitol Hill publication The Hill in May 2007, "That’s why I work in politics. My family, we're activists."

Daughtry said in The Hill interview her Pentecostal faith fits perfectly with the Democrat Party.

"Why wouldn't it fit?" she asked. "The Democratic Party is full of people of faith."

"Have you been to our conventions? Music and waving and happiness, it's perfect," she said.

Said McLeod: "Some would say with Marxist Momma in the top job, it's little wonder why Barack Obama is the DNC's Golden Boy coming to Denver with mainstream media garnered rock star status."

Daughtry also told The Hill it actually "makes me angry" that the "far right" has cornered the market on religion.

The Times reported Daughtry, 44, "is leading the Democratic Party's new mission to make religious believers – particular ardent Christian believers – view the party and its candidates as receptive to, and often impelled by, the dictates of faith."

The paper pointed out Dean himself, during his 2004 campaign, exposed his biblical ignorance by naming Job as his favorite book in the New Testament.

Dean praised Daughtry's arguments for the party's acknowledgement of religion and her ability "to connect with people's inner core."

Daughtry, who has not named her favorite for the nomination, expressed pleasure over the Democratic leadership's expressed desire be a party of members of faith.

"I think it's wonderful," she told the Times.

The Time said Daughtry's mission, directed from within Democratic headquarters in Washington and the convention offices in Denver, is essential to transforming the party's reputation.

The party has commissioned E. Terri Lavelle, an evangelical who told the Times reporter she "accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior in February 1973, to travel to evangelical events around the country to strike up relationships with leaders such as megachurch pastors Rick Warren and Joel Hunter. The party hopes that, at the very least, its desire to listen and engaged with evangelical issues, including abortion, will be recognized, the Times said.

Daughtry supports abortion, as does her father's church.

"God allows us to choose in the biggest matter whether to accept him in our lives. How then can we take away choice on other profound issues?" she said.

Throughout her Times interview, Daughtry did not put any distance between herself and the black liberation theology of James Cone.

"At the basis of black liberation theology is the understanding that God has a special place in His heart for those at the bottom of the ladder," said Daughtry.