More than 100 black religious leaders asked the black pastors reportedly backing Donald Trump to consider his past rhetoric and behavior before announcing their support.
The Trump campaign recently announced that a coalition of 100 black pastors and religious leaders will endorse the candidate Monday, though the campaign of the billionaire businessman has yet to specify the leaders who were backing him.
In an op-ed in EBONY magazine published Friday, pastors, seminary professors and Christian activists critical of Trump asked the group backing the candidate to consider the impact that endorsing him could have on their congregations.
“By siding with a presidential candidate whose rhetoric pathologizes Black people, what message are you sending to the world about the Black lives in and outside of your congregations? Which Black lives do you claim to be liberating,” the leads wrote.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The leaders said the endorsement could give legitimacy to Trump’s campaign with black communities.
“Trump’s racially inaccurate, insensitive and incendiary rhetoric should give those charged with the care of the spirits and souls of Black people great pause,” the op-ed said.
The Trump campaign announced the endorsement days after a Black Lives Matter protester was repeatedly punched and kicked at a Trump rally in Birmingham.
“Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” Trump said on Fox News Sunday.