From the Washington Post:

Cory Booker says he grounds his policies in a ‘moral center’ — including his new reparations bill

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey April 11 at 3:53 PM

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a Senate proposal this week to establish a commission to study reparations, the idea that descendants of slaves should receive some form of payment, calling it “a nationwide effort for truth and reconciliation” in an interview Tuesday.

Several other candidates for the Democratic ticket have supported the general idea of reparations, but Booker appears prepared to lead the issue legislatively. “You have to have healing” when a harm is done, Booker said….

Unlike most Democratic candidates, Booker sees religion as a conversation starter, said Lerone A. Martin, a professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis. …

Booker, who told Religion News Service he regularly meditates and prays on his knees, was raised in an African Methodist Episcopal Church and is now a member of a National Baptist church in Newark.

“I am here because of the black church,” he said.

The black church was not just a place where values and morals were instilled in his parents and grandparents, he said.

“It was a place of safety and security, a protective force shielding children who were dealing with the daily assaults on their dignity, on their pride,” he said. “And it was also a force for social justice.”