Pastor says Obama 'doesn’t represent the more conservative views of African-Americans'

GRAND RAPIDS -- Election returns show that 95 percent of African-Americans cast their presidential ballots for Barack Obama – but Rev. Stacey Foster wasn’t one of them.

Foster said he’s conflicted. He is proud Americans elected their first black president, but he disagrees with many of Obama’s beliefs.

“A lot of people voted in their pocket book, I voted in my conscience,” Foster told several hundred students at Cornerstone University’s chapel the morning of the inauguration.

Foster voted for Sen. John McCain, calling him the “less of two evils,” and placing himself among the four percent of African-Americans who voted for the Republican.

“I’m excited about (Obama) being an African-American, but I would have preferred if it were a black man that he would have been more conservative,” Foster said.

He believes Obama’s views on abortion and homosexuality are contrary to biblical teaching.

“The Kingdom says God hates those who shed innocent blood, and homosexuality is an abomination to God,” Foster said.

Yet he is thrilled to witness the first African-American president, saying, “We moved from the outhouse to the White House,” and “instead of an African-American holding the Bible that the president would place his hand on when he took the Oath of Office, instead it was a white man holding it for an African-American.”

As he gazed at the inauguration ceremonies there were moments when he clapped with a sense of accomplishment and others when he shook his head in disappointment.

Foster admitted it took a lot of courage for him as an African-American to point out Obama’s negatives publicly, let alone say he wasn’t voting for him. But he couldn’t shake the conflicted feeling that his first duty is not to his nation or race, but to God.

“If there’s a conflict with my views and God’s views, God’s views should win out,” Foster said. “My view is he’s too gray on his views of abortion and homosexuality and doesn’t represent the more conservative views of African-Americans…Our political views are more democratic, but our religious views are more conservative.”

With Obama’s four-year term just beginning, Foster’s conflicting passions will duke it out for a while. He couldn’t be happier at the steps America is taking toward diversity. But his faith is like a rock, and it won’t be moved.