Constitutional crisis

America is approaching a constitutional crisis, one that threatens the freedom and sovereignty of the nation. So claims Marine veteran and Harvard graduate Earl W. Jackson, who announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in April. Bishop Jackson, the founder of Exodus Faith Ministries, a nondenominational Christian church in Chesapeake, Va. and Boston, Mass., says that a love for the country and its founding principles drew him into the race.

"I don't see any other candidate in the race who seems to fully understand the gravity of what we're facing," Jackson said. "I love my country, and I'm offering myself in service in the United States Senate in order to, not just stop the Obama agenda, but to reverse it, to roll it back."

A staunch supporter of limited government, Jackson believes that President Obama has overreached the boundaries of his executive powers. Jackson cites the president's efforts to enforce cap and trade through the Environmental Protection Agency, bypassing Congress; the president's refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act; and the president's decision to involve the U.S. in the Libya conflict without approval from Congress.

"I call this, frankly, a lawless administration presided over by a lawless president," Jackson said. "[President Obama] has said that the Constitution is fundamentally flawed because it doesn't give the government enough power, which means he doesn't understand our Constitution-it was meant to minimize the power of the government and maximize the freedom of the individual."

Born into poverty in Chester, Pa., Jackson remembers that his father taught him discipline and vision as a young boy.

"He instilled in me the idea that this country offers immense opportunity to anybody who is willing to work and willing to do something with his or her life," Jackson said.

Jackson served in the United States Marine Corps and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1975 and from Harvard Law School in 1978. While studying law, he was called into the Baptist ministry and began to study at Harvard Divinity School.

After practicing law in Boston for 15 years, Jackson started devoting more time to the ministry, first by founding Boston's only all-gospel radio station, and then, in 1996, by leading "The Samaritan Project," a national outreach effort to raise funds for churches attacked by arsonists.

In 1998, Jackson was consecrated a bishop, and he and his wife, Theodora, moved to Chesapeake, Va. to plant a church and establish Exodus Faith Ministries. In 2009, Jackson founded Staying True to America's National Destiny (S.T.A.N.D.), a grassroots organization dedicated to the promotion of Judeo-Christian values such as fiscal responsibility, traditional marriage, and support for life. Since moving to Virginia, Jackson's accomplishments include: writing his first book, "Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life;" founding the annual Chesapeake Martin Luther King Leadership Breakfast; serving as chaplain for the Family Foundation; and leading the Conservative Emergency Task Force Summit in Washington, D.C., in March 2011.

Jackson still lives with his wife of forty years and their three children in Chesapeake. His second book, "American the Beautiful-Reflections of a Patriot Descended from Slaves," is due out later this year.

The constitutional crisis and the crisis of values are the biggest issues of the 2012 election, according to Jackson. Problems such as government spending are only symptoms of the "disease."

Jackson would like to see President Obama's healthcare law repealed and cuts made to government spending. For now, he wants federal spending cut back to 2006 levels and would support a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. In an effort to "restore values," Jackson wants to establish an American History Month, a time to reflect on the principles held dear by America's founding fathers.

On social issues, the minister holds strong conservative beliefs, including the belief that life begins at conception and that marriage is between a man and a woman.

"Human beings do not have the right to simply kill unborn children because they think it's convenient or because the Supreme Court said it's OK," Jackson said. He went on to say that Americans need to be better educated on the horror of abortion and that no federal or state money should be used to fund the practice.

Jackson not only opposes homosexual marriage, but is "personally offended" by the comparison of gay rights efforts to the civil rights movement.

"Being black is a characteristic that has nothing to do with your behavior and says nothing about your character; it simply says something about the color of your skin. Homosexuality is a behavior," Jackson said. "Trying to make it a protective class... is to me completely illogical, irrational, inappropriate, and wrong. I'm insulted by it, and I think many other people are too."

Although he was raised in a Democratic home, Jackson became a Republican in the 1980s, after a "crisis in conscience," his Biblical convictions jarring with the Democrat Party's political views.

"That doesn't mean I believe parties are the ultimate answer; I believe Jesus is the answer. My faith is what drives me in politics and public policy," Jackson said. "I believe the time has come for [Christians] to be heard, and I will bring that voice to the U.S. Senate."

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