Cal Thomas: Cadence and contradiction

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. 

Finally: the legacy of Jesse Jackson, who died this week at age 84. He’s remembered as a gifted orator, a two-time presidential candidate, a figure both praised and polarizing.

Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: President Trump called Reverend Jesse Jackson “a force of nature.” And so he was.

Jackson was one of the last great orators shaped by the Civil Rights era. Along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he could lift a crowd with rhythm and conviction.

Here he was at the 1984 Democratic National Convention:

JACKSON: Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. And then faith will not disappoint. Our time has come!

He had that cadence—preacher and politician rolled into one.

I saw it up close once when I accompanied him to a public middle school in Washington. He told the young girls not to get pregnant before marriage. He told the boys to respect the girls and to wait. The students hung on every word.

Afterward I said to him, “That message might do more to lift people out of poverty than politics ever will.” But politics was a temptation he could not resist. It gave him a national stage.

Yet there were moments when that stage served something larger.

Earlier in 1984, after Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman was shot down and captured by Syria, Jackson traveled to Damascus on what he called a mission of mercy. The Reagan administration had misgivings. But Jackson secured the sailor’s release and won the president’s praise.

REAGAN: You did it, you brought it off, and I think it's just great. 

JACKSON: Well, I thank you, as I said on the phone...

Jackson returned with Goodman to the White House, where President Ronald Reagan said publicly:

REAGAN: Reverend Jackson’s mission was a personal mission of mercy, and he has earned our gratitude and our admiration.

It was one of Jackson’s finest hours.

He twice ran for president and startled the Democratic establishment, building what he called the Rainbow Coalition. He was frequently where the cameras were—sometimes, critics said, too frequently. Even some of Dr. King’s staff grew weary of what they saw as his instinct to insert himself into historic moments.

Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister, but his preaching often emphasized what is called the social gospel—justice and reform in this world, more than preparation for the next.

Still, his most enduring line was not about power. It was about dignity.

JACKSON: I am black. Beautiful. Proud. I must be respected. I must be protected. I am somebody!

That refrain echoed in schools and churches across the country.

He never offered a theological explanation for why he was “somebody.” But the reason is older than politics and deeper than protest. Every human being is somebody—because every human being is made in the image of God.

Jesse Jackson was a gifted, ambitious, sometimes polarizing man. But he understood something essential: people long to be told they matter.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

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