Remarks to the Church of God in Christ Bishops Convention - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 25, 2000

September 20, 2000

The President. Thank you. Well, if I had any sense at all, I would quit while I'm ahead. [Laughter] I know I'm not running for anything this year; otherwise, I would never agree to speak behind all those folks. [Laughter]. Bishop Owens and Bishop Smith and Bishop Brooks, Bishop Haynes. Let me say hello to Bishop Clark, the General Board of Bishops. I thank the choir. I was pretty transported during all that, weren't you?

Audience members. Yes, sir.

The President. If I could sing like that lady, I'd have been in a different line of work. [Laughter]

I want to say a special word of thanks to Bishop Walker, who has been my friend for so many years, and his colleague in Arkansas, Bishop Lindsey. I hope the Lord won't think it's sacrilegious, but in a figurative way, they helped raise me from the political dead 18 years ago. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here today. And I thank them for that.

I also want to say how grateful I am to those in our administration who have helped me to work with you--Ben Johnson, who is here. You mentioned Alvin Brown, representing the Vice President. He also represented all those empowerment zones, where we've created jobs for people who have been left out and left behind. The Vice President and I thank him for that.

And I, too, want to pay special privilege to the man, Bishop Owens, who was where you are now when I started. Bishop Ford--I loved him. He was my friend, and I'm honored to see you, sir.

In Timothy, it is written that, "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." Now, I thought I would come here and talk about that, because unlike me, you aren't term-limited--[laughter]--except, of course, in the sense that we are all term-limited.

And so as we pass through this fleeting life, I wanted most of all to thank you for your good work. I want to thank you for your friendship to me and to Hillary and to Chelsea, for sticking with our family through thick and thin, and for being a part of America's family as we have moved forward.

It seems hard to believe it's been almost 10 years since I spoke to about 20,000 members of the Church of God in Christ in Memphis, at the convention. Then, Bishop Owens and I were reminiscing. I went back to Memphis, to the Mason Temple in 1993, to speak where Dr. King delivered his last sermon. And as he pointed out, some people thought it was my best sermon as President. [Laughter] In 1996 I addressed the Women's Convention in New Orleans.

We've had a wonderful relationship, a friendship, a partnership. And much of what has been said today has been deeply personal, and for that I am grateful. But I think it's worth remembering that you do your jobs, and I have done mine, not primarily for the personal but for the others, that we are supposed to be serving. And if we take a hit now and again along the way, that's just part of the cost of service.

And the Scripture says we should simply not grow weary; that in due season, we shall reap. I have to admit, there were times when I thought the winters were too long, and I thought we'd never get to the reaping part. [Laughter]

But we have. We have the longest economic expansion in our history, and we've all been a part of it. We have the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, the lowest violent crime in 27 years, the lowest African-American unemployment ever recorded, the lowest poverty rate among African-Americans ever recorded, the highest homeownership and business ownership among minorities in America ever recorded.

The teen birth rate is at the lowest level ever recorded. For the first time in history, African-American children graduate from high school at the same rate as the white majority. We saw a report just a few days ago saying that the last couple of years the percentage of African-American children taking advanced placement courses in high school--which means they're going to college; otherwise, there's no point in going through all that grief--has increased by 300 percent in just the last 3 years.

And I do think a little of the venom is draining out of our national life. You know, there are people that try to start up and get everybody mad, but it's not getting a lot of traction this year. I saw, just the other day, the Church Arson Task Force said that church arsons today were less than half what they were 4 years ago. Maybe the American people are coming home to their better natures. I think they are. I hope they are.

And I guess that's the most important thing I want to say. I'm grateful that we've been able to make this progress, and I'm grateful that you believe I kept my commitments to you. I certainly tried to. But after all, we are all just passing through. If you serve 4 years or 8 years as President, or 4 years or 40 years as Bishop, we're all just passing through. And we add our little bit to humanity's work, and, then we go on.

Now, what I want you to think about now is, what have we done all this work together for in the last 8 years? What have we fought all these fights for in the last 8 years? What do we intend to do with this great unusual moment of peace and prosperity?