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An influential group of black megachurch pastors urged President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack faith leaders are extremely disappointed in the Biden administration on this issue,\u201d the Rev. Timothy McDonald, senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, which has a congregation of 1,500 members, recently told the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n McDonald was one of the first pastors of more that 200 black clergy in Georgia to sign an open letter calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are afraid,\u201d the pastor continued. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve talked about it \u2014 it\u2019s going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n Other groups, including the Black Church Pac<\/a>, have called<\/a> for a ceasefire shortly after the war began last year.<\/p>\n Rev. Jamal Bryant, who leads the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest and is one of the founding members of the Black Church Pac, contended that the war could threaten Biden\u2019s chances of reelection this November.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Biden threatens his own success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He noted that Democrats seem to be \u201calmost on cruise control and feel like: Oh, the black people will come around. They\u2019ll be forgiving, and they\u2019ll go along with us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0According to The Christian Post,<\/a> the pastors have also called for the release of hostages held captive by Hamas, an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and noted that they resonate with the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see them as a part of us,\u201d Rev. Cynthia Hale, founder and senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, to the Times . \u201cThey are oppressed people. We are oppressed people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBlack clergy have seen war, militarism, poverty and racism all connected,\u201d Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network, whose members lead some 15 million black churchgoers added. \u201cThe Israel-Gaza war, unlike Iran and Afghanistan, has evoked the kind of deep-seated angst among black people that I have not seen since the civil rights movement.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent survey<\/a> conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace<\/a> found that about 43 percent of black Americans are in favor of a type of cease-fire in Gaza, while 24 percent believe that the U.S. should not be involved in the war.<\/p>\n\n