thing in high school. i asked you to vote for me because i've changed. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. this sunday is monday's day. the "the ed show" starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." i'm mick l eric dyson. this sunday some african-american pastors plan to criticize president obama for his stance on marriage equality. tonight i'm going to help my brothers and sisters of the cloth see the light. this is "the ed show." >> especially in the black community. it's a difficult conversation. >> absolutely. >> equality for gay americans is the same as equality for black americans except in some black churches. >> they have finally set god and done nothing. >> harry jackson says same sex marriage is an assault on society. he is my guest tonight and

professor hendricks and i will try to show him the light. >> the mother of slain gay teen calls mitt romney bullying an october of torment. jp morgan chase sends shock waves through the economy with a $2 billion loss. and it's the explosive video that could finally ruin scott walker. >> we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employees, use divide and conquer. >> john nichols on the bomb shell. the national conversation about president obama's stance on same sex marriage isn't going away. courage doesn't come without controversy and this one is no different. further evidence that the american public has e vovled on this issue. a new poll finds that 51% of the american public approve of president obama's decision.

45% oppose it. that's in line with other recent polls showing that public opinion has tipped toward favoring marriage equality. there are voices from the african-american faith community who are upset with the president over this issue. president obama has betrayed the bible and the black church with his endorsement of same-sex marriage. the bible is crystal clear on this subject and the black church strongly poses same-sex marriage. his endorsement in an take on the christian faith. bishop harry jackson poses president obama's stance just as he opposed marriage equality in maryland a few months ago. >> we need to pray about the maryland decision about same-sex marriage, that issue. it really is an assault. the enemy wants it to be a legacy or a seed that is planted

in this generation that corrupts, perverts and pollutes generations to come. >> we need to take a good hard look at this. first of all, president obama respects religious traditions and those with different views. >> i think it's important to recognize that folks who feel very strongly that marriage should be defined narrowly as between a man and a woman, many of them are not coming at it from a mean spirited perspective. a bunch of them are friends of mine. pastors and people who i deeply respect. >> especially in the black community it's a difficult conversation to have. >> absolutely. i think it's important for me to say to them that as much as i respect them, as much as i understand where they are coming from, when i meet gay and lesbian couples, if me it's just tipped the scales in that direction.

>> president obama stance is not a religious one but he did consider his own faith in his decision. >> we are both practicing christians. this position may put us at odds of the views of others. when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only christ sacrifices himself on our behalf, but it's also the golden rule. >> third, black leaders of faith should not make the mistake of using the bible to suppress the rights of the lgbt community just as the bible was used to suppress the rights of african-americans. throughout our nation's history again and again, the bible was cited to justify slavery and discrimination in laws against interracial marriage. there are plenty of examples of this. do we really want to stand on the side of a racist history to substantiate our argument that african-american people should be opposed to gay and lesbian

and bisexual people? some african-american people say we are mad they are taking our sooi civil rights movement and using it as a paradigm. he borp rrowed the language and system of oppression from a brown saint in india and applied it to the american scene. black people do not have a copyright on civil rights insurgents or resistance. we should be proud of the fact that anybody can look at us and derive from our experience an example and paradigm of their parallel resistance to civil rights injustices and to the out right degree ra dags of their personalities. this is a fight about what we think is right and wrong to be

sure. we must not use the bible to create more enemies of the faith but to use our faith as a basis to identify with those that are the least lost and lonely. jesus said you should love thy god and love thy neighbor as thy self. do we want to use the bible the same way it was used against us. many white christians believing they were under the spirit of goonds the anointment of their faith believe that black people should be marginalized. not given communion because they were not human and they were not their brothers and sisters. they sited biblical texts to justify their bigotry. the great preacher said a bigot is a person that makes an idol

of his or her commitment. black christians must be deeply rooted in their faith but not deeply especially trenched this bigotry. do we want to become sexual rednecks. do we want to extend the same trajectory of transgression and tragic suppression of the belief and faith of gay and lesbian and bisexual people. do we want to stand on the wrong side of history because we have a narrow conception of faith. i call upon all my clergymen and women, friends of the faith and thinkers to stand against this bigotry. come on sophia and roland and jamal, put down your covering in the name of faith when all you're doing is getting god to co-sign your bigotry. let's be bigger than the bigotry. let's stand up the narrow and let's call upon the faith of our

fathers and mothers to release and to free those who are op pressed and not to reenforce their vicious oppression. isn't it ironic that the architect of martin luther king jr.'s march on washington was a gay african-american man. it is notable that president obama stance on gay marriage won't change public policy a great deal. president obama was already strongly in favor of legal protections from lgbt communities. he's clearly aware that most states in the country have laws on the books against gay marriage. he is willing to cast his voice on the side of equality. i would also point to pastor jamal harrison bryant who came to this conclusion. while i am uncomfortable with the president on this position, i am more uncomfortable with the alternative an agenda that does not include the poor and platform that does not engage minorities and the black church.

speak out against the vicious criminal insistance that everybody be a narrow version of heterosexual. those that are crying for acceptance and other people whom are other sex who are crying out for the acceptance of their god. i ain't never been to a black church that turns that black tithes from gay people. i've never been to a black church that refuses to take the money of those that are lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual. we know many of the ushers and the choir directors and the ministers preaching against homosexu homosexualty is enclosed themselves. free them. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. who's policies are more in line

with christian teachings. >> text a for president obama. text b for mitt romney. i'll bring you the results later in the show. i'm joined by bishop harry jackson and obie hendricks. bishop jackson we showed a bit of your sermon there. i'll let you go first. what's your position on what president obama did this week? >> as you and i talked earlier, i want to know what he's going to do next. he didn't just say what he said because he wanted to inform people in a moment of clarity. i believe for 20 years he's known that he's been for same-sex marriage, but he didn't flow whether he wanted to inject that issue into the political arena.

it's happened. i want to know what will it mean. how will it change things? in a couple of weeks i'll be asking for a hundred strong black men and women to come to washington, d.c. and prayerfully meet with the the president and his surrogates, and we want to hear from them clearly from his words what he's going to do. are we going to have more intrusions into the culture? the lack of actually following through with doma, things of that nature. what is the president going to do? >> professor hendricks before we get to your area of expertise, biblical interpretation. is this more an issue of justice than religion? give us a sense of your understanding of the issue. >> i think it is about justice. it's a question of human personality.

i don't think that all the churches that reject marriage equality are doing it viciously. many of them deeply believe it. what they overlook is that all people are equal under the law. constitutionally everyone should have the right to marry, to have all the rights of the one they love whether it's the same sex or not. it's about justice also because jesus gave us one major way to judge one another. that's in matthew 25. as you have not fed the hungry and clothed the naked and sheltered the homeless, you have not done it to me. those who don't look out for one another, he said they are the ones that are going to go to hell. the way we judge one another is how we treat one another.

whether someone is trying to help somebody and love their neighbor as themselves. >> the bible was used a bludgeon against african-american men and women. >> if you really want justice, why not ask for polygamy? why not brooden this discussion. i don't want to change marriage at all. if you are really arguing for justice, why not have bigamy and other thing, polygamy be part of this equation? >> professor hendricks, that's an outright obviously

misapplication of the anl analogy here. it's outside of the scope of morality. the draw the analogy itself is to participate in the prejudice. how do we get rid of this if we can do this gay and predatory behavior. >> i didn't say predatory behavior. >> if you're going to talk biblically. it does say if a man lie with a man, he should be killed. it also says a child should be killed. it also said that someone that masturbates should be killed. if we're going to talk about a biblical basis, let's get it right. what i'm saying is there's not

really a strong biblical basis for saying that people who love one another, there's no biblical basis for keeping them apart. >> we're going to have to shelf that conversation. we have to go right now. thank you bishop harry jackson and dr. obrey hendricks. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter. i want to know what you think. next, mitt romney calls his high school bullying a prank. one woman is calling it an act of torment. her name, judy shepherd, the mother of matthew shepherd. she'll join us next. new evidence of scott walker's effort to destroy unions. john nichols tells the what you say it means for the recall. por. por. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper.

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coming up, mitt romney calls

the high school bullying incident a prank. not everyone is taking it as lightly. the mother of matthew shepherd is speaking out. she joins me next. jp morgan chase says it lost $2 billion because of risky trading practices. a new broadway production of a streetcar named desire has critics raising questions about casting. the stars of the play join me later in the show. share your thoughts with us on twitter using the hashtag ed show. we'll be right back. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. are you guys okay? yeah. ♪ [ man ] i had a great time. thank you, it was really fun. ♪

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the fallout continues over a washington post report detailing mitt romney's bullying behavior as a teenager. former classmates of romney at the cranbrook told the paper how romney abused fellow students abused to be gay. he tackled and pinned down a student, repeatedly clipped his hair as the student criy eied on protest. the family is disputing the report. romney was never disciplined for his behavior. i'm not surprised. i attended cranbrook in the mid-70s for about a year and a half. i witnessed all kinds of behavior from the inappropriate to out right intolerant. there was a recording that said we're going cigar fishing today. no, we're not, we're going n record fishing. i'm aquantitied with the fact that elite at the top level have bigotry percolating inside. now mitt romney calls the incident a prank.

he rationalized the behavior by saying he didn't flow the victim's sexual orientation. today, one woman is taking issue with romney's characterization of that event. her name is judy shepherd and she's the mother of matthew shepherd. in 1998 matthew shepherd was 21 years old when he was abducted by two men. they drove him to a remote area, beat and tortured him and left him to die. he was found 18 hours later by a cyclist who first mistook him for a scare crow. days later he died in a hospital. judy shepherd knows the consequences of intolerance. she now says while this may seem like an innocent prank to some, it was an act of torment against a child for being different. we expect the people we elect to be leaders in the charge against bullying so that all students are afforded the right to learn and grow in an environment free

of fear. this incident calls into question whether mitt romney can be an advocate for the nation's most as a rule nvulnerable children. thank you for taking time to join us tonight. >> it's my pleasure. thank you for the invitation. >> absolutely. that was a powerful statement you made. give us a sense of what you think mitt romney's mistake is in brushing this incident off as merely a prank. >> well, i'm a little concerned that he says he doesn't even remember it. i would think something boardering on assault would stay with someone in their member. it did with the other boys that participated. i'm concerned that he doesn't seem to exhibit empathy even though it was those years ago. it's character building years. i'm concerned that this is a character trait that remains. there was a feeling of elitism

and they would not get into trouble. it's a concern as a parent of a child who was vulnerable that he may not feel empathy for those that are different for whatever reason. >> sure. in terms of character building years in the way the choices we make reflect our moral interpretation, it does say something about him as a leader. do you think this should be brought to bear to determine whether he's a leader worthy of being elected? >> i'm glad we're talking about it. we can't just brush it under the carpet. as we investigate his life further, which we don't know much about it. we don't know much about how he spent the rest of his years and if this is character trait that follow offense lack of empathy and some sort of bullying. it did you want happen just in the schoolyards. it's in corporations and exists

in every aspect of our lives. i'm hoping that we try to find that out. >> when you talk about empathy, what did you think when you heard of president obama come out and support marriage equality this week? what was going through your mind? >> at long last. we feel free to be who we are. to have our families be intact and recognized by the leader of the free world. it's an amazing statement. while i realize it doesn't change anything legally or in the legislative world, just knowing his opinion is if favor of equality marriage is a huge step towards getting there. >> well, not only the president, but the rest of the country has to be taken measure of. do you think the country is making progress when it comes to lgbt youth, and are you encouraged what you've seen since your son's tragic death? >> i'm very encouraged. we still have pockets of intolerance and even hate in

this country. i'm not sure we'll ever get rid of all of it. now that it's on the public teena stage and we talk about it, it's in schools and corporations. our churches on the street corners. education is all we need. ignorance is our enemy. we need to tell your stories and educate the public about this. now that we have the opinions of the vice president, president, secretary of education, so many of our leaders coming out in favor of equality marriage sends the message of respect and gives permission of those who believe in it to come forward and say i agree. >> we're thankful for your advocacy over the years and thank you for coming on. >> thank you. four years after the worst financial crisis since the great depression, one of america's biggest banks is back to the reckless behavior that almost crashed the global economy. profiting from the trayvon martin tragedy. the online sale of tray john gun targets is the latest shameful

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as the republican presidential nominee continues to call for wall street deregulation, jp morgan chase provers how important wall street regulation is. the banking giant lost $2 billion dollars that made the economic crisis as bad as it

was. the rule puts restriction on pro pry tear regulations. one of the people that oppose it is jp morgan ceo jaime diamond. the latest loss makes a case for tighter regulation. if you wanted to have the hardest regulation possible other than electing elizabeth warren to the board, he's now succeeding in being the manchurian candidate. >> the scc is looking into this. did the bank break any laws. did it violate any accounting

rules? >> we've had audit, legal, risk compliance looking over that. we know we were sloppy and stupid. regulators should look at something like this. we're totally open. they will come to their own conclusions. we intend to fix it, learn from it and be a better company when it's done. >> sloppy, stupid and bad judgment. here is a guy that knows all about that. senator bernie sanders from vermont. senator, will this incident put an end to high-stakes bets by our financial institutions which have the possible to wreck the system for so many other normal regular people? >> sadly, it won't. i think the lesson to be learned here is that these guys have learned nothing since their greed and reckless and illegal behavior drove this country into the worst recession since the

1930s causing so many people to lose their jobs and homes and savings. these guys have learned nothing. we need to reregulate. i'll tell you something else. that's when you have the sixth largest financial institutions in this country including jp morgan chase, institutions owning assets equivalent to two-thirds of the gdp of the united states of america, over $9 trillion. when they issue half of the mortgages in this country and two-thirds of the credit cards in this country, you any what you've got to do, you got to break these companies up. you got to make sure -- pardon me. >> go ahead. >> you got to break them up. they have too much influence. they have too much power. it leads to two things. this kind of concentration of ownership is bad for the economy and it leads us down the path

once again of having to bail them out. michael, inmy view, what we need to do as a country is have our financial institutions not engage in gambling, which jp morgan chase did. they lost money because they were gambling. they made a bad bet. we don't need our large financial institutions betting. we need them investing in the economy and creating jobs. >> you and jesse jackson have been on the forefront of asking for the glass act. tell us how that could help in a situation like this when these derivatives have been known about. tell us about glass stegall and why it was important. >> it was inacted in the 1930s. it said when the federal government is going to provide insurance, fdic insurance to banks, you cannot have investing banks are merging with insurance

companies. the risk to the taxpayer becomes much too great if one of those entities fail and the whole thing goes down. that was glass stegal establish walled. what we have seen is these large financial institutions have removed far, far away from what traditional banking was about. what traditional conservative banks is a company needed money, you lend them men. they go out and create jobs. these guys are now an island unto themselves engaging in highly complicated trades and bets and derivatives which have put the entire world's economy at risk. i think it's time to say you've had your day. you failed. we need a new type of financial system. >> right. the glass stegall act was the separation of church and state for the protection of american

populous. mitt romney wants to repeal dodd frank. does this incident hurt his case? >> of course it does. it's totally insane. can you imagine after all of the damage done because of deregulation allowing wall street to do whatever they wanted to do which was essentially engage in highly ri risk ki, if not fraudulent activity. if say let them do anything they want in any way. it's beyond my comprehension that anyone can talk about deregulating wall street. i think most people know we need to re-regulate. >> thank you so much. there's a lot more coming up. stay tuned. >> we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employees. >> right. >> use divide and conquer. >> scott walker is caught on tape. john nichols on today's bomb

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senators left wisconsin to try to prevent the bill from passing, scott walker said this. >> i have great respect for those who have chosen a career this government. i really do. despite a lot of rhetoric we heard over the past 11 days, the bill i put forward isn't aimed at state workers. it certainly isn't a battle with unions. the legislation i put forward is about one thing. it's about balancing our budget now and in the future. >> come, come now. of course the bill was not just about balancing the budget. now we have proof that scott walker was determined to destroy unions from the minute he took office. newly released footage from a documentary shot in january 2011 shows walker talking to one of his billionaire donors about his agenda. >> any chance we'll get to be a completely red state and work on these unions and become a right to work? what can we do to help you? >> we're going to start in a couple of weeks with our budget

adjustment bill. the first step is we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employees. >> right. >> use divide and conquer. >> those pesky cameras and that peskier truth. he said divide and conquer. after he delivered on his promise to destroy collective bargaining, the billionaire she was speaking to donated $510,000. he said it was a year and a half ago and i don't remember the particulars of that discussion. selective and convenient amne a amnesia. fortunately, there's the video to job his memory. joining me is john nichols. does this tape just confirm that democrats were right all along and that this man was out to break the unions?

>> i think it goes beyond confirming what some people expected. i think there were a lot of folks that thought that scott walker had an mouse toward unions and he was determined to undermine them. what you see from this video and an associated transcript of raw footage is that he had very detailed plans for how to do it. first taking on the public sector unions. weaken them to such an extent that they could not stand up for when he came for private sector unions. that term divide and conquer was carefully chosen. if you listen longer into the videotape that became available, he refers to taking down the public sector unions as something that would open the door for other initiatives as regards to union. this is a revelation as regard to governor who had a very specific plan to attack the trade union movement.

>> specific and diabolical. what's the reaction to this tape within wisconsin? there's a pitch battle going on. >> it's an interesting thing. governor walker's opponent in this recall election, milwaukee said we shouldn't just focus on what he's done in the past but what he might do in the future. he said he believes in governor walker survives, he would seek to make wisconsin a right to work state where unions would not have the ability to function in a meaningful way. he was dismissed and ridiculed. newspapers said he might be going too far in saying that. governor walker said he was wrong. now we have video that specifically goes to the issue. it's very strengthening for tom barrett. it also, reenforces a sense in wisconsin, a dawning sense going

back for some people to win governor walker took that call he thought was from a koch brother. he may not tell the truth to the people of wisconsin, but he does speak the truth when he is talking to someone who is a billionaire or who he thinks is a billionaire. >> right. john, what's the impact of all of this on the recall election because it's obviously approaching. there's an enormous battle going on in wisconsin. what's the likely consequence there? >> this story has gone wall to wall today. even right wing talk radio stations have been playing the tape or playing some of this on their news shows. everybody in the state is going to be a ware of this. that term divide and conquer will be a big part of the dialogue. he said he wanted to heal wisconsin. here you have him talking about

divide and conquer. it's going to be a pitched battle right up to june 5th. i believe this video is going to become a big part of tom barrett and the democrat's effort to reveal a deeper sense of who scott walker is. >> thank you. trayvon martin's mother has a mother's day message for the country specifically the 20 states with stand your ground laws. stay with us. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 there are atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the most dreaded fees of all, hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, you won't pay fees on top of fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no monthly account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and we rebate every atm fee. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because when it comes to talking, there is no fee.

up next, the mother of trayvon martin urges other moms to get involved in the effort to repeal stand your ground laws. don't forget to tweet us. stay tuned. [ male announcer ] this is your moment. this is zales. the diamond store. take an extra 10% off storewide now through saturday.

an anonymous online vendor is profiting from the trayvon martin tragedy with a shockingly

violent target. paper targets with skittles and ice tea are being sold online. the unidentified seller told an orlando television seller that they sold out this todays. even the attorney for martin's accused killer called it an act of hate mongering. martin's mother is bringing the focus back to repealing stand your ground laws. >> i'm sybrina fulton. this will be my first mother's day without my son trayvon. i know it will be hard but my faith, family and friends will pull me through. on sunday, i'm going to say a prayer for other mothers across america who share this unbearable pain. just like me, 30,000 mothers lost their children this year to senseless gun violence. nobody can bring our children back, but it would bring us comfort if we can help spare other mothers the pain that we will feel on mother's day and

every day for the rest of our lives. i'm asking you to join florida by calling upon the governor of your state to re-examine similar stand your ground laws throughout the nation to keep our families safe. i thank you from the bottom of my heart. happy mother's day. >> wow. there are currently 19 other states with stand your ground laws similar to the one on the books in florida. it's disgusting for people to exploit the tragedy of trayvon martin for things like shooting targets but it's dangerous not to scrutinize stand your ground laws in the wake of tragedy. a new production of an american classic. blair underwood joins me. stay tuned. [ male announcer ] this is coach parker...

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ago. it's now been reborn to powerful effect. i'm joined by blair underwood and nicole ari parker, both starring in tennessee williams' a streetcar named desire. >> thanks for having us on. >> tell us what it feels like stepping into these two iconic roles and play them with such delicious reverence on one hand but such powerful beautiful specifity. tell us about what that feels like. >> ladies first. >> i always, people have been asking me about this. this is my broadway debut. i've waited 20 years for this phone call. i don't think i would have been able to play blanche until now. i just approached it from a very

deeply respectful way. vivian leigh has laid it down for us. kate blancett's performance came before us. i just wanted to respect the material and dive in and give it everything that i have. i'm glad that it touched you so deeply. that's all i can ask for. >> very powerful. brother blair. >> these are two of the most amazing roles for an actor and actress to play. to have an opportunity to do it has been phenomenal. we live in that space that every night we get chance to take the stage and speak the words by the incredible tennessee williams. it's great opportunity. >> what's interesting is you guys do it with such dignity but also such powerful respect for your craft.

some people have been in the treat, the parlance would be tripping, the fact that an african-american cast, you have white brothers and sisters. you have latinos. it's incredible diverse cast. some people said, well, spare us the folly of having another all black casting unless we can do an all white casting on august wilson play. how ridiculous is that? marlon brando was not, last time i checked, polish, but he played it. we talk about a fellow and number of people who through the years have played that. how do you respond to that kind of narrowness? it's not a black play but it's black cast and others interpreting it. >> at tend of the die, the last thing you think of when you leave this place is race. what you see upon that stage is humanity. i don't read reviews.

i just don't. i don't like it seeping into my consciousness. now know people bring it up. i know is that about 90% of the reviews have been positive. there are been those that have been trippk and honest, i'm going to come right at you. to me it's really -- >> very stanley of you. >> the dark side of white liberalism. the dark side. that was john lair that said that from the new yorker what you're talking about. this was his christmas list five months ago that he did not want santa to bring him anymore all black cast of tennessee williams unless they will have the equal folly which will be an all white production. for none constituents to say anything about that, we knew we were talking to a choir.

we know that. we love it. we put it in its place and we have fun doing the role. >> let me say this. i have a couple of thoughts. i kind of respect his courage in a way to some out in 2011 and 2012 and say such dismissive kind of uninformed, racial comment. he's putting it on the table. the only way we can really affect any kind of change is if this white critic really tells how he feel, and he did. lucky for us it affected nothing because we're on stage every night and we just got an extension. >> thursday. it's just important to know this is not folly. it's not hyperbole. >> it's not a play about race. it's about class. >> it's about class. it's about desire and mental health.