NEWS STORY: Head of black Baptist group indicted on racketeering, theft charges

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the face of criminal charges, critics of the Rev. Henry J. Lyons called Thursday (Feb. 26) on the embattled church leader to step down as leader of the National Baptist Convention, USA. But supporters said they believe Lyons, indicted in Florida Wednesday on one count of racketeering […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ In the face of criminal charges, critics of the Rev. Henry J. Lyons called Thursday (Feb. 26) on the embattled church leader to step down as leader of the National Baptist Convention, USA.

But supporters said they believe Lyons, indicted in Florida Wednesday on one count of racketeering and two counts of grand theft, will be vindicated.


Lyons told a brief news conference in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday,”I haven’t been the monster I’ve been portrayed as in the media,”essentially reaffirming past claims he will be cleared of the accusations against him.

Florida authorities have accused Lyons and some of his aides of personally using thousands of dollars donated to help burned churches and exploiting his denomination’s name to swindle millions from large corporations, the St. Petersburg Times reported.”My name will be cleared,”Lyons told his St. Petersburg, Fla., congregation at a Wednesday night service, just hours after he turned himself into authorities and was released on $100,000 bail.

Bernice Edwards, a former NBCUSA employee and a convicted embezzler, also was charged Wednesday in Milwaukee as a co-defendant in connection with the racketeering count.

The St. Petersburg newspaper reported details from an affidavit from the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office, including that”the investigation established a large theft of funds from the Anti-Defamation League.” Those funds were used for personal expenses for his family, his”paramour,”and interior decorating at his home, the document said. The”paramour”was identified as Brenda Harris, the denomination’s conventions and meetings director. A romantic link between her and Lyons has been alleged but each has denied it.

In addition, Lyons allegedly opened a secret account to deposit money he and Edwards fraudulently gained from corporations. The investigation also found that Lyons and some of his denominational associates endorsed products of some companies in exchange for contributions to NBCUSA that were often placed in a secret account for their personal use.

The affidavit also includes an accusation from a former secretary to Lyons that he made up the figures on how many church members there were in each state and that rather than the 8.5 million members the denomination often claims, there might be less than 1 million.

Both critics and supporters of Lyons alike dismissed that accusation, noting the 8.5 million figure was used before Lyons took office.


Lyons, who also is under investigation by federal authorities, survived attempts to oust him from the presidency of the predominantly black denomination last fall.

Following the filing of the Florida charges, his supporters and detractors in the church, for the most part, remained resolute in their opinions about him. Some wish he would resign and save the NBCUSA from further embarrassment and others remain confident he will be exonerated.

The Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, who opposed Lyons in the NBCUSA’s 1994 presidential election, said he is equally concerned about the accusations concerning the burned churches and the defrauding of corporations.”In my opinion, it’s a very sad day for our convention,”he said, when reached in Cairo, Egypt, where he was leading members of his Mount Vernon, N.Y., church on a tour of the Middle East.”I think that they certainly cause a lot of pain in the people of our convention and in our pastors and churches.” Richardson said the denomination’s board could suspend Lyons until the next annual meeting of the denomination, which must ratify such an action, but he expects the board to continue to support its leader.”I’m calling for immediate action and I think the most immediate action can be taken by him,”said Richardson.”It’s time for him to step aside so that the convention can, to the degree it can, begin to heal itself and begin to find some refocus and renewal.” But the Rev. John Chaplin, NBCUSA first vice president, said Lyons continues to have much support in the denomination.”Most people I’ve talked to believe that the charges are like trumped up charges,”said Chaplin, a Washington, D.C., pastor.”We who know Dr. Lyons know that he was not in racketeering and know that no theft has been committed.” Chaplin, who described the St. Petersburg Times as”the arm of Satan,”said he believes Lyons will do better in court than he has in the newspaper.”The truth will come and once he is exonerated, I believe that he will continue on to be able to achieve the things as president that he set out to do,”Chaplin said.”To me, to others who are 150 percent behind him, he is innocent.” The charges concerning the burned churches revolve around a donation of $244,500 from the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL gave Lyons the money from an ADL/National Urban League fund to help burned churches in November 1996 and February 1997. After learning from media accounts that most of the churches Lyons claimed had received the money did not get it, the ADL demanded last September that the money be returned.

The NBCUSA responded by returning all but $30,000, which Lyons’ attorney said had been distributed to burned churches.”We were, we felt, betrayed in our experience, but in fact, we were able to repair it,”said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director. When the money was returned, the ADL gave it to the Washington-based Congress of National Black Churches, which has distributed it to eight congregations across the country, ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum said.

Chaplin said the burned churches issue was settled when the money was returned.”When they wanted the money back, it was given back,”he said.”And when (Lyons) received the money, they did not give him a time period on how long it should be before the money was distributed.” But others affiliated with the denomination had a different view.”The fact that the largest African-American denomination did not fulfill its commitment when the National Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church and everyone else did … is a blot and an embarrassment,”said the Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a sociology professor at Colby College in Maine and an associate minister in a church affiliated with Lyons’ denomination.”If he misused those funds … at the least it is gross fiscal incompetence that makes the denomination look bad and at the very worst it is a failure of the first order and it makes me angry.”

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