and what you believe and what you want. they are not afraid to say what they believe. they aren't afraid to say what they want and they aren't afraid to tell you you're wrong. you preach bible but they say they are the bible. and so if we are going to be serious about not allowing the religious right to define the narrative about what it means to be christian, then you've got to be more aggressive about outside of your churches, talking about what that looks like and the policy that accompanies it, not the other way around. the church should not chase the policy. the church through its moral compass should push to be able to set the policy that's a reflection of what it is that you preach. but if you are a punk outside of the four walls of the church, then it doesn't work. and we can be -- we find ourselves being rhetorically gangster in the pulpit and punks in the street. and so if we want to be able to

control the message, then control the message. and don't let your people be controlled by a religious right simply because they are more aggressive. hijack the message from them the way they hijacked it from us. >> thank you. thank you so much. congresswoman waters. >> i think jeff johnson talked about what we do now and what we do as we plan for the future. right now we've got the problem of exciting people, getting them to the polls. we've only got another, what, five, six months before november. the primaries are going on all over the country. and so know your state laws. and i want to tell you, your ministers and your focused on the gospel. but you've got a lot of young people and professionals and others in the church. give them an assignment. give the lawyers an assignment in the church. give the young mbas an

assignment. have them come back with the information, some of which you have been introduced to here today, this week. and know what your state laws are, what you can and you can't do. and so when you know what your state laws are, then you can use your influence in ways that will be very helpful to the community and still won't get you in any trouble with irs. we don't want you to give up on policies because you say that, oh, i may violate my 501c3. if your state laws don't allow you to do voter registration in the church, do it in the restaurant down the street. do it in -- there are a lot of different places you can do it. but what you have is your congregation. yes, do some of what everybody talk about in terms of reminding people of how far we have come, the sacrifices that were made, the voting rights act, all of that. but also mobilize.

mobilize to use your absentee ballot laws to make sure that people have the absentee ballot forms and they can gather like they gather at prayer meetings in people's homes or other places and help people with those absentee ballots. then the other thing that some of you do already, we can do better is to get people to the polls on election day by picking them up. but organize it and get a lot of those young people in the church to do this work. so we have to do that for the immediate. but as we plan, get with the black caucus and the elected officials as we plan for the future to talk about how the people in our communities know the difference between what we say and what we do. that's extremely important. so i still believe and i'll just wrap this up, that the church has power. i think again as i said when i first started talking, unutilized power.

and so what you find in our communities now, whether it's in our schools or businesses, we are losing power. we are losing power and influence because nobody has taken the leadership. and so the ministers and elected officials working together can have some sessions where we absolutely plan what we are going to do. if we are going to deal with the banks, and the lending institutions in our community, the elected officials got to get with you and we've got to call in the local branch managers. we've got to review the cra plans. what your investing in the community? and not simply in phony mortgages but in our businesses. our businesses are almost nonexistent in many of our places. but, anyway, we can do this work for the future. let's do what we can for now. thank you. >> thank you. mr. mason? >> someone asked the question, how do you hold the democratic party accountable? the answer is simple.

form and support your own institutions. again, form and support your own institutions. when there was no one speaking to the issue for black and brown voters and voter i.d. laws, we formed protecting our vote superpac. form and support your own institutions. and we have a history of doing this. black churches formed hbcus. out of hbcus. audioi'm an omega man. i see purple and gold sitting out on the table. i'm standing next to my delta sister, but i -- you must be an alpha. but we have a history of doing this. this is not new to us. but somehow we forgotten. we've forgotten how to take our political power and turn it into economic power that turns it into more political power that turns it into more economic power. we forgot how to support our

institutions. but you know who hasn't? you know who we haven't learned from and they do this all the time? the pro-israel community. they are much smaller than us, but they have a much greater footprint. form and support your institutions. that's how you hold people accountable. power concedes nothing without demand. we begand nothin-- demand nothi get nothing. >> we cannot control the conversation unless we understand the issues. we cannot become politically sophisticated unless we know and understand the issues. we cannot set an agenda and we cannot leverage our power unless we know and understand the issues. education is the most important piece in all of this. we have to be edicated on the issues in order to be active.

faith link has coming up with six action items that you can take home and start to do with your congregations around the voter education issue and around other policy issues. they all fall within three steps -- the cbc's three step action plan. the first one is to set up a voting task force. when congresswoman waters talks about utilizing the power that you have in your congregations, different skill-sets that the members hold, this is something you can do. it's very real. it's practical and you can empower your congregation in doing it. the second is providing voter education information and training materials to your membership. you can put a leaflet in your bulletin. you can make announcements. you can do very simple things to make sure that your congregation has the information that they need. the third is sponsor and organize a voter registration event. the , host a public policy issues forum. the fifth is coordinate an early voting program. and the last is coordinate an election program. those are six simple things that

you can do. these are real things that you can take back with you. organizations like faith link that are not 501c3s that have more flexibility to be able to help you can assist you in doing that. >> thank you so much. and last, but not least, reverend tony. >> the thing i would say is take the excuses off the table. this is not the hardest times a black church has ever seen. the black church has strategized, immobilized in the midst of slavery and jim crow and in midst of reagan and the bushes. this is not the hardest time the black church has ever seen to mobilize our community. we cannot get to a place in which we have a black woman, a black mom, two black children and a black dog in the white house and now act like we've lost our mojo. amen, somebody. but you've got to remember who you are. get your swagger back. amen. you used to be beautiful. you used to be beautiful. i mean, really, it's time to

reclaim who you are and what you do. and say, no, we know how to do this. we've done it before. we've done it in worse times than this and we can do it again with god on our side. but you've got to stop -- get the excuses off the table and remember who you are and whose you are. >> let's give all of our panelists a big round of applause. i just want to close this session by saying this one thing. in our community in the black community, we have always elevated our pastors. always. from the beginning of time. we have elevated you here today. but, remember, that you still have a charge to keep. remember that you are here to serve this present age. and who knows that you may be in this place today just for such a time as this. god bless you. >> we want to thank -- someone

mentioned bishop brookings funeral will be friday in los angeles. we want to thank congresswoman marsha fudge for emceeing this session. and to remind you that the buses will depart for the national ecumenical service at 6:30, and it will be at the metropolitan african-methodist episcopal church. the service will begin at 7:30. the preaching will come from bishop thomas l. brown sr. and the congressional black caucus would like to express appreciation to the cnbc whose chair is dr. sief franklin richardson and the president jacki oie burton. we appreciate the partnership that we've had. it is important for me to say

that the idea and the push to get this partnership developed and to have members of the clergy to come to washington so that we can present them with information came from congressman charles rangel. and for a period i did even hide from him on the floor because he was going to say, rev, how are we coming with the conference. is everything on target? and we in the congressional black caucus believe that charles b. rangel is the epitome. he is the consummate congressman. and we are all pleased and fortunate to just have the opportunity to sit at his feet

and to learn from him. almost 41 years ago, 13 members who were of congress who were african-american came together and formed the congressional black caucus. and among those 13 was the gentleman to my left, charles rangel. and for over 40 years now, charlie rangel has been one of the leading voices of reason and one of the leading voices for peace and justice in the house of representatives. and, you know, i think that he is a historical figure that we all need to talk about. yahushiwa is the pronunciation for joshua in hebrew. and he made sure he told all of the priests to be able to define what some stones meant that he placed in a roadway called

ebenezer. and we all need to be able to tell people what the stones of development have meant to us. there's a stone called martin and a stone called frederick douglass and a stone called sojourner truth. there's a stone called martin luther king and abernathy. and there's a stone called charlie rangel. and i want to say to you, that i intend to -- every chance i get -- to tell people what this stone has meant. this stone has meant that we had somebody who had the cerebral power, the intellect, and the political know-how to get things done that 30 or 40 years ago, nobody even dreamt of. ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased and proud to present the man who we all believe to be one of the greatest members of the house of representatives to ever walk the halls. congressman charles b. rangel from new york.

[ applause ] >> i guess there won't be anything left for the funeral. i think you said it all. but i cannot tell you how good -- how very, very good i feel today. just as we have waited to get a president of color, we needed a minister, a legislatolegislator leader, like eldredge clebur to help us without being critical of us to find a pathway that provides lights for those that follow us. bringing this together with the energy of staff and having all of the members get excited about

this. i am telling you that it's a moving thing for us. someone said that this is the beginning of a partnership. no, we can't afford to have this as the beginning of anything. this is it. this is the big one. this is the time. we have to pledge to each other. i'll let you in on a couple of secrets. and we're going to leave here as o one. first of all, i got a lot of medals in korea. some of the people that survived with me call them track medals, but what the hell. i'm here. but when i thought that these tens of thousands of chinese just about had done everything to my colleagues. we had 90% casualties. i took a shot in the dark and said, jesus, i know it's all over. i was 20 years old. i mean, there was no way with

the moaning and the groaning and the gunshots. i knew it was a nightmare. but i just said that, if you could see it clear, just see it clear and somehow spare me, i promise you never, never in life will you have a problem with charlie rangel. and i wrote a book, and the whole book is that since that day, i haven't had a bad day since. not a bad day since. and i am convinced if we look over our past that we have going through rough days and never realized how rough they were. and so what i have done, is what we are facing today is the

destruction of human rights as we know it. women's rights. decency. fairness. if that is being destroyed, somebody has got to ask. fd wh and what were you doing? you know, when i marched the 54 miles from selma to montgomery, i had bad feet and i wasn't thinking about marching those southern roads i didn't know much about. but when they told me dr. king was going to take some pictures with us, i got dressed up and i went down there. and i had a round-trip ticket to get back to laguardia. is it started raining. and instead of going back into the churches, people started putting on plastic around their worn-out shoes. well, i had a cashmere coat and it didn't appear to me this was my setting. i came down for pictures, and i thought this would be the appropriate time for me to get a

cab and to see a paper and see how the pictures turned out. but as they started moving, i don't know how many of you knew selma 60 years ago. but as they started moving, i found myself without any sidewalk. i was actually in woods with a bunch of mean national guards people spitting tobacco protecting me as we marched singing "we shall overcome" into the woods. with hostility all around me. no photographers. no way to get back. for 54 miles my bad feet and i said, what the heck are we doing in these woods marching like th this? i had no clue that history was being made. i thought it was just another bad day for me.

i did not know it meant the voting rights act. i did not know it meant the civil rights act. i did not know how many people had marched and marched and marched like john lewis and andy young who understood each and every risk they were taking and took it. and even though the story is told in a very different way to my grandkids today, i wonder how many times you and i and others have realized that as we meet today, as we adjourn today, as we have been able to bring together the black churches, not just the history, but the symbol. just people all over the world knowing that you met. even maxine doesn't know. when i was chairman of the caucus, the best thing going for

us was nixon rejection of us and we used to meet and have no agenda and the press would be outside and we wouldn't tell them what we were meeting. but every dayabout, but every day, we had a meeting. and they said here we were, ready to blow up the world, but the fact is, if they think we're together, and we act like we're together, if we leave here together, if we have no bad words for each other, i mean republican, we do what we have to do privately, but if we find out that the solidarity that we have, someone mentioned by jewish friends, i sat next to a guy in law school, he felt so proud that he wasn't jewish in terms of religion, but his ham sandwiches and all the laws he'd broken. but ten feet tall with solidarity. because he had something left in him that he believed in.

it's not just martin luther king. there's a little bit in all of us and if we can take the things we have done frankly, richardson, the willingness of people to come together, the fact that the church is the only thing some people have. they can never get money and wealth and any of those things, but they believe in you. we're asking you as a congressional black caucus to believe that we're all you got. we're in your hip pocket. we want to be with you. we hope at the end of this meeting, that you think about adopting a half a dozen of us. if we live in your district, that's a contrary. if you live in a district like franklin richardson, you probably get 30 or 40 members

adopted. but pick who you want. and i tell you, we'll make you feel like we don't move without you because one day when we come back and ask, please act like you were right. and i assure you that that the church's symbol will be bigger and how much stronger your congressal caucus can be. we started with 13 members. then 26, then 42. there's no limit with the way that color is coming into our country, of how far we can go and if they think we're serious and as powerful as we know we can be, if you are part of that

wind under our wings, today will be a day you will never want to forget. so i know you got to take your buses, but just look at the members. see which ones you want, which ones you live with. i am as serious as i can be and we will write you back and tell you the issues that we are dealing with. can you imagine what would happen if our chairman gave you a list of issues. asked to take a look at which you would think is the best for your church and community and the country and then one sunday, we all all over this country, picked something that everyone liked, black, jew or gentile would say, we never thought about that. because i take my seat saying i never gave chairman cleaver a hard time. what i told the chairman was that i didn't know much about the bible. all i knew is that i was an

altar boy, they were talking latin, throwing incense in my face and i was listening to the same thing every sunday. but there was one thing that came out of it. and that is there was some rich people and they wanted to get into heaven as i remember. and they were waiting for jesus to explain why he was blocking the way. for r the admission into heaven. and he explained to them that he was naked. and he had no clothes. that he was sick. and didn't come to visit him. that he was in jail and they didn't know he was hungry, he was thirsty. basically, he was in bad shape and he went to them and they just turned him down. and as i remember the story,

they looked and said, no, you got the wrong people. you never came to any of us. and he said something like, if you don't understand how you should be treated, people not be, but the lesser of people like me, then you should go straight to hell. that's all -- and so, i keep bringing it back and forth and saying that's our mission. we saw on television what they think about us as a people. republicans have named us and thank god you're our partners. i like to say that in three months, this is the first day i tried to do it without a cane. thank you.

>> we want to thank the congressman. come on. as you remain standing, let me say that i want to thank all of you for sharing. we have another full day tomorrow. tomorrow night is our awards dinner. we want you to ask you please with honoring clyburn -- james clyburn tomorrow night, one of the honorees involved and we are asking you please make sure you get your ticket for tomorrow's dinner. board members depart at 6:15 on kay street. i want to close out by saying how grateful i am to kay street board members. at the front door. i want to say how grateful we are to our congressman.

they have made us, they have honored us today. and the truth of the matter is that for most of us, this national display of unity between the caucus and the conference, the national black churches, is not a pretext. because we live in our every day in the districts of this nation. most of us, our churches have had partnerships with our congressmen and they've been faithful to us, especially the members of the caucus. we want them to know we're proud. we've found great joy in the services you've made. you've made us proud and we've never once, never once, rejected the idea that we invested in you and you have always delivered on our part. i live in westchester, but this is my congressman. on behalf and let me tell you, this was not just a ceremonial

part of the show. mostly all of the caucuses been through every day. from early this morning, you saw nothing but congressmen. you almost thought where this was the legislature being passed because the congress, caucus was here. so on behalf of all of the pastors of our nine denominations -- church of god and christ, four baptist denominations, all nine of them and independent churches, because we have also opened up the caucuses within main line denominations and we're building a movement. we're not gathering for religious or theological purposes, even though our thinking flows out about the other. we're gathered around education, health, social justice and economic empowerment and when the church comes together around those issues and puts aside the

denominational baggage that separates us from our people, there's no telling the impact we could have in this country and this election season is an important test of whether or not we're serious. mr. chairman, thank you for your leadership. >> let me thank you, too, mr. chairman and our staff and all the work they've put into it as well as the staff of the cnbc and now, let us prepare to leave from this place and now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the god our savior who alone is wise be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever more, the people of god said amen. hey --