J.D. Manning is the chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in New York City. Manning is a staunch enemy of the gentrification of Harlem and has called for its residents to boycott its shops, restaurants, doctors, banks and churches. Combined with a general rent strike, this would according to Manning force all property owners out of Harlem and leave the neighborhood to its rightful inheritors: black people. He calls his plan “No Dew, Nor Rain,” apparently after Elijah's warning to Ahab. The whole of Harlem, he said, is to be a "drought zone." Maybe you can make sense of it yourself. More here. In fact, Manning has made the general claim that African-Americans should not support Kwanzaa, the NBA or any major Black-owned business.
But OK – despite its fundamentalist trappings, maybe this is nothing more than fiercely militant idealism?
Perhaps. So why does Manning count as a loon? The fact that he prides himself on his Doctor of Philosophy degree from his own (unaccredited) ATLAH Theological Seminary should give you a clue. Mainly, however, Manning has been a fierce critic of Obama. He has, among other things, called Obama's mother "white trash" for becoming pregnant by a black man out of wedlock. His well-reflected, erudite criticism also involves frequent comparisons with Hitler and calling Obama “long-legged mack daddy.”
In fact, Manning is a staunch birther. He's gone as far as conducting large-scale mock trials, charging Obama with being a Muslim CIA agent and putting up signs like this one (“The blood of Jesus against Obama, history made 4 Nov 2008, a Taliban Muslim illegally elected president USA Hussein”). “CIA”? “Taliban”? Oh yes, you see in the 1980s Obama was really a CIA agent who was working with the Taliban. The commonly held belief that he was a student at Columbia is only a fictional cover-up. See Manning explain the details here. Oh, and Obama is also an emissary of Satan.
Diagnosis: Rabidly insane christopath. His impact must surely be limited, but he does seem to have some followers. That’s not funny.
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