Commissioner Lee May, Rev. Bernice King Discuss God, Politics at Stonecrest Mall

Amid the hustle and bustle of a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon, a plethora of people attended a book signing for DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May (District 5).

The event took place at Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia for his newly published book, "My God, My Politics: A Discussion on Faith and Politics." The mall is in the heart of Commissioner May’s district. 

May said that his 180-page book focuses on how faith should “influence every aspect of lives” including politics and that the book “will set your faith free to speak to your politics.”

As a part of the book signing, Commissioner May invited the Reverend Bernice King to the stage to share about how faith influences her decision making as a community leader.  King also talked intimately about how faith influenced the decisions of her father, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the civil rights movement.  King is the second daughter and youngest child of the slain civil rights leader.

During the interview, Commissioner May asked King to talk about how her father handled the pressures of being a policymaker. “People think that when they saw my dad that he was so brilliant and that he always knew what to do, but that’s not true. My father was a praying man; he constantly prayed about the decisions that he would make.  Yes, they had brilliant minds and ideas on what they would do, but timing on when to implement those ideas was [another] thing”, said King.

Commissioner May talked candidly about the difficulties that come with being an elected official.  “It gets tough standing for truth when it seems like you’re by yourself," May said.

King offered words of encouragment and challenged the commissioner not to compromise his values and to let conscience be the determining factor as he and others make decisions for the people of DeKalb County. 

“Take the high road and do what conscience dictates you do. At the end of the day you have to look at what’s going to be for the greater good for most of the people," said King. 

“Ask yourself, what’s the greatest good for humanity as I craft these policies. For [my father] the focus was always the people," she said.

For more information about Commissioner Lee May’s book, My God, My Politics, visit his website at http://www.mygodmypolitics.com/.