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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm has condemned the response of many black leaders to the Trayvon Martin case as "shameful."
Some black pastors within the nation's largest Protestant denomination say Richard Land's comments hurt the effort to broaden the faith's appeal beyond its traditional white, Southern base.
Land, who is white, says he stands by his assertion that President Barack Obama, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton are using the case "to try to gin up the black vote."
One black Southern Baptist minister, the Rev. Dwight McKissic, said he plans ask the convention to repudiate Land's remarks.
Land says he thinks that effort will fail because the majority of Southern Baptists agree with him.