African American pastor does not support BLM, praises Cape police chief

Pastor Ben Porter is an African American pastor who does not support the Black Lives Matter organization.

Porter, 52, has led Gateway Church of Cape Girardeau, along with wife Rose, since 2017.

While he affirms the value of Black life, he does not back BLM and has not participated in any of the BLM protests at Cape Girardeau’s Freedom Corner that followed the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

“I’ve read some of (BLM’s) fine print,” Porter said.

“I don’t agree with defunding the police,” he added. “No society maintains order without the police.”

Porter said Black people are not monolithic in their thinking.

“(BLM) doesn’t represent all Black people,” he said. “Black lives are valuable, but I’m not sending any money to the (BLM) organization.”

Porter said he believes money given to BLM ends up being siphoned off to other organizations.

Porter gave insight into his attitude by detailing difficult personal experience.

The pastor’s older half brother, Tony Williams, was shot to death during an altercation with a Dallas police officer in 1989.

“I was 21 at the time (of Tony’s death),” Porter said, “(but) I knew the mentality of my brother.”

Porter said Tony was shot twice in the chest.

“My brother was enraged and attacked the officer,” he recalled, adding Tony Williams was an imposing 23-year old man, standing 6 feet, 2 inches and weighing 220 pounds.

“(My brother) had never lost a fight,” Porter said. “(Tony) was a person in pain who needed help and never got it.”

Porter said he has empathy for the police officer involved in the shooting.

“To be fair, (the officer) was a couple of months from retirement and had never shot anyone before,” Porter said.

“The (officer) was an older gentleman and had to resign (afterward),” he added. “I felt for him.”

Porter said he wishes the patrolman would have shot Tony in the shoulder or in the leg to disable rather than kill him, but understands people must make decisions in real time.

Porter describes himself as a religious “Word of Faith” conservative who admires evangelists such as Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland, proponents of the so-called “prosperity” gospel.

“I wince at the word ‘prosperity,’” Porter said. “I don’t believe in ‘name it and claim it,’ ‘blab it and grab it,’ theology.”.

Porter said his theology is more nuanced.

“(Gateway’s) purpose is to help people who were impoverished to get out of a poverty mentality,” said Porter, a military veteran who moved from Cape Girardeau in 1988, after graduating from Cape Girardeau Central in 1987, and returned in 2016.

“The (poverty mentality) is a mindset we’re trying to overcome in the black community,” he added, noting more than 10% of Gateway’s congregation is white.

Gateway Church has hosted three “Race in Conservative America” panel discussions this month. The fourth in the series is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the church, located on the second floor of the old Federal Building on Broadway in Cape Girardeau, where the Porters moved the congregation in 2018.

Labeled “The New Reconstruction,” this week’s gathering, open to the public, will feature Cape Girardeau City Councilwoman Shelly Moore, State Rep. Kathy Swan and St. James AME Church pastor Renita Green

During the July 16 panel discussion at Gateway on race and law enforcement, Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair said of the 80 police officers currently in his department, only one is Black.

“I’m not sure how to fix the problem of (police) recruiting,” Porter said. “(Blair) ought to go to the high schools and make himself known there. Talk to kids while they’re young.”

Porter has nothing but good to say about Blair, who came to Cape Girardeau from Texas in 2013.

“I know chief Blair personally and I know his heart,” Porter said. “He’s a good man and sincere and there’s not a prejudiced bone in his body.”