Twenty years ago, Archbishop George Augustus Stallings Jr. garnered both international praise and condemnation when he publicly broke with the Roman Catholic Church on the Phil Donahue talk show. He cited the church’s unwillingness to serve the African American community as the reason for the acrimonious dissolution of ties. Stallings then started the Imani Temple African American Catholic Church near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in 1989. The church will celebrate its 20th anniversary in July 2009. But first, Stallings and members of his congregation are preparing for an even bigger celebration – Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th president of the United States.–terry shropshire
Why do you believe Obama’s meteoric ascension was divinely inspired?
Barack Obama was elected president of the United States some 40 years after the death of Martin Luther King. Forty is a very significant number in biblical terminology. Forty always represents a profound period of preparation to celebrate a greater event. The children of Israel were [in] the desert for 40 years. Jesus prayed in the desert for 40 days prior to undertaking his ministry. Even after the Resurrection, Jesus was on the Earth for 40 days before ascending to the heavens. Forty has a powerful significance when it comes to spiritual preparation.
Does Obama’s presidency symbolize the fulfillment of America’s ideals?
America rose to a new moral standard. America can live up to its highest ideals, [and] what [it] has professed for 240 plus years, ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Hey, America was right after all. They are no longer talking the talk, but walking the walk. America can truly be the land of the free and the home of the brave. There can be liberty and justice for all.
