In 1880, about 150 Baptist pastors met in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the Baptist Mission Convention. In 1895, this convention merged with two other conventions to form the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America. Today, this organization describes itself as the largest religious organization among African-Americans with more than 40,000 member churches, representing 8.5 million people.
This week the National Baptist Convention had its 129th annual meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. It is estimated that 35,000 people – almost all black – attended this gathering. What is remarkable is that very few people either noticed or cared that the meeting was happening.
It is almost unbelievable that a meeting of black people that large could go unnoticed by the general public. Especially a meeting of black church leaders whose members are facing problems regularly decried in sermons every Sunday: high unemployment, a scourge of home foreclosures, single parent households, high school dropout rates, health care disparities, neighborhood violence, alcohol and drug addiction, domestic violence, incarceration and recidivism rates – to name a few. But one would have to attend the meeting to understand why that is true.
It is not as if people would not notice if there were something noticeable happening at the event. But the agenda of the week-long gathering is dominated by preaching and singing rather than planning and strategizing. I love to hear great preaching and great singing. But there are major challenges confronting African-American communities that need to be addressed by these churches, and very little happened in Memphis that would help these 40,000 plus church leaders be more effective in their communities.
The local media described this convention as a $40 million dollar bonanza for the city of Memphis due to all of the money that was spent by the participants. All while some of the very institutions that are owned or supported by this august body are experiencing severe financial difficulty.
Perhaps the gathering does not have time to answer any questions about its views on the continuously raging AIDS epidemic or health care policy or gay marriage or even the growing secularization of our society because it is preoccupied with a bid by the former president of the convention to get elected again.
Henry J. Lyons of Tampa, Florida recently served time in prison for crimes he committed while he was president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. from 1994 – 1999. These crimes included fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, conspiracy and extortion. His scandalous misdeeds almost crippled the organization. New leadership has restored a sense of order and integrity. But Lyons is asserting that God has forgiven him and his presentation to the group in Memphis implied that the members owed him both their forgiveness and another chance to lead.
I guess it can be hard to offer relevant critique of a society engaged in war and an economy that disproportionately punishes black people when your national organization is being hijacked by leader who uses your religious belief to blackmail you into letting the fox back into the hen house. Perhaps when the National Baptist Convention finally puts this shameful display of arrogance to rest, it can emerge as a true resource for African-American Baptists, institutions and communities.
