Editor’s note: In most political coverage, it seems like the vast majority of Americans are easily shoved into familiar “liberal” and “conservative” niches. But not everyone fits, especially when religious doctrines affect the actions and convictions of believers. This weekend’s think piece is by our own Bobby Ross, Jr., from The Christian Chronicle — where he serves as editor.

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As a teen, longtime Tennessee state Rep. John DeBerry Jr. integrated an all-White high school and witnessed civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech before his 1968 assassination.

To supporters, DeBerry — a 69-year-old Black preacher from Memphis — is a man of high integrity and strong moral convictions based on his Christian faith.

But to opponents, including Planned Parenthood, the LGBTQ Victory Fund and the Tennessee Democratic Party’s executive committee, the 13-term incumbent is an out-of-touch relic. In their view, DeBerry’s conservative positions on issues such as abortion, gay rights and school choice make him unfit to remain in office.

“I tell people all the time when they talk to me: It’s not about the elephant. It’s not about the donkey. It’s about the Lamb,” said DeBerry, who has preached nearly every Sunday since 1968 and served as the minister for the Coleman Avenue Church of Christ in Memphis for the last 20 years.

The widowed father and grandfather makes no secret that he believes life begins at conception.

That, he contends, is not a Republican stand.

“It is a biblical stand,” he told The Christian Chronicle in a lengthy, wide-ranging interview. “It is a moral stand. It is an ethical stand.”

After 26 years in the Tennessee General Assembly, DeBerry faces the fight of his political life in the November general election.

That’s because the Democratic executive committee voted 41-18 in April to remove him from the party’s primary ballot. The decision — reaffirmed 40-21 the next week — came after the filing deadline to run as a Republican or independent.

At first, it seemed as if DeBerry would have no choice but to give up his seat or wage a longshot write-in campaign.

But then his fellow legislators stepped in and amended state election rules, allowing him to file as an independent candidate after the original deadline.

The Volunteer State is a hotbed of a cappella Churches of Christ, with roughly 1,400 congregations and 200,000 men, women and children in the pews, according to a national directory published by Nashville-based 21st Century Christian.

Until 2006, Democrats controlled a majority of the Tennessee House of Representatives. However, Republicans gained a slight majority (50-49) in 2008 and kept adding to their seats. They now control nearly three-quarters of the House (73-27).

“I don’t think it is difficult for a religious person to be a Democrat in Tennessee, but it means different things to be religious and Democratic now,” said Marc Schwerdt, a political scientist at Lipscomb University in Nashville. “If you are religious and Democratic, you have a  leftist/progressive lean to both your faith and politics.

“Social justice is extremely important to both the progressive faithful and progressive Democrats, which dominate the party now,” he added. “Just as the Republicans have become more red, the Democrats have become more blue.”

But while the Democratic Party has become more progressive, DeBerry has not.

The executive committee had a responsibility to “confirm the legitimacy of an individual representing themselves to be a Democrat,” said Kendra Lee, a 32-year-old Black Democratic activist and committee member from Memphis.

DeBerry failed the test, she said. 

“There was never a question of morals or character,” Lee told the Chronicle. “This is very much straight down the line as to your responsibilities as a Democratic elected official.”

According to The Tennessean newspaper, the committee’s concerns included the incumbent accepting contributions from Republican-aligned political action committees, voting for school vouchers and voting for a Republican as House speaker in 2019. 

However, some leading Democrats voiced disappointment with the executive committee’s action, including House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a fellow Memphis representative who called DeBerry an “honorable man.”

Continue reading “Ousted by Democrats, longtime lawmaker and minister fights for his political life” by Bobby Ross, Jr., in The Christian Chronicle.