Six days from South Carolina primary: Ministers energizing the vote –but for who, remains uncertain

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Sunday before South Carolina’s Democratic primary was an unusual chilly day here, but the messages from the pulpits were designed to fire up the audience to cast a vote for the candidate of their choice.

The Rev. Roanell Hough, pastor of Bethel AME Church in Columbia, told his congregation that “God has provided us good people male or female to represent the country.”

Now it was time for his members to meet their responsibility and to go out and vote during Saturday’s primary, Hough said.

“What more sacrifice could we ask of someone who dedicated their lives to social change so that we would become corporate executives, serve in the White House, run for elected office as a man or woman,” he asked. “We have another opportunity to live the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King.

“This country is going to rise on Saturday and change history.”