I, Rev. Edward Pinkney, with love, am giving a moral assessment of many of my fellow ministers, black and white. I must admit that even the black and the white church have often been a taillight rather than a headlight. I am admonishing the clergy for not confronting the great socio-political issues of our time, even as congregants live in the midst of poverty. I cannot abide ministers who preach pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. I rebuke all ministers for their obsession with rampant materialism; we have been more concerned about the size of the wheel base on our automobiles and the amount of money we get on our anniversaries. My call is to give a kind of new vitality to the Church of Jesus Christ.
I believe that the great tragedy is that Christians fail to see that they have the revolutionary edge. We must all work together, black, white, brown, and all others; it is rich against poor and haves against have-nots, and not black against white. We must stand together.
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In order for the trial court to submit a case to the jury on an aiding and abetting theory for forgery, there must be constitutionally sufficient evidence that the defendant aided and abetted that person, or helped somebody who forged the recall petitions.
When there is insufficient evidence to allow the charges to be submitted to the jury on an aiding and abetting theory, the trial court committed reversible error by giving an aiding and abetting instruction to the jury, along with an instruction that indicates the jury may convict the defendant as the principal.
The evidence is insufficient to support a verdict and the evidence was insufficient to support any theory. This case should have never gone to the jury. There is absolutely no evidence to support a conviction by any jury, especially a rogue jury. A rogue jury is a jury that ignores the law and evidence in reaching a capricious verdict. They based their verdict on unrevealed, deeply held prejudices. The all-white jury was motivated by something other than the truth.
We live in a county called Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan where the majority of white people are racist, including the United States Representative Fred Upton, heir to the Whirlpool Corporation; State Senator John Proos; State House Rep. Al Pscholka; Berrien County racist judges Sterling Schrock, Angela Pasula, Charles T. LaSata, Scott Schofield, and Art Cotter; along with Prosecutor Michael Sepic and Sheriff Bailey—all openly practice racism. Most whites do not want to discuss racism and would say, “I am not a racist” with their own mouth, but in their heart they are really racist and willing to attack minorities.
Berrien County has a majority of white residents who openly practice racism, and the rest are great people, but are silent and refuse to stand up to racism or speak up. So that makes them complicit with the rest of the white residents, including pastors, ministers, churches, and elected officials!
I, Rev. Edward Pinkney, with love am giving a moral assessment of many of my fellow ministers, black and white. I must admit that even the black and the white church have often been a tail-light rather than a headlight. I am admonishing the clergy for not confronting the great socio-political issues of our time, even as congregants live in the midst of poverty. I cannot abide ministers who preach pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. I rebuke all ministers for their obsession with rampant materialism; we have been more concerned about the size of the wheel base on our automobiles and the amount of money we get on our anniversaries. My call is to give a kind of new vitality to the Church of Jesus Christ.
I believe that the great tragedy is that Christians fail to see that they have the revolutionary edge. We must all work together, black, white, brown, and all others; it is rich against poor and haves against have-nots, and not black against white. We must stand together.
-Rev. Pinkney
