WASHINGTON – Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC) under the leadership of President Dr. James C. Perkins has called for a PNBC Advocacy Day in Washington, DC on April 17, 2018. The event demonstrates the denomination’s social action priorities of poverty, mass incarceration, healthcare, and voting rights. During the 50th anniversary year of Dr. King’s martyrdom, PNBC will lift up the issue of poverty/economic justice and keep the moral obligation to address these topics at a policy level and in the minds of policymakers. To that note, PNBC will hold an Advocacy Day to raise awareness of the current Administration’s attack on poor and working-class people while highlighting tax breaks to the rich that could be used to fund entitlement programs.
Since the beginning of the new Administration in 2017, there has been a clear agenda to set policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of struggling Americans. Both budget cuts and structural changes have been previewed in President Trump’s State of the Union Address and proposed budget. These changes include “wedge issue” reforms that do not speak to the real issue of fair wages, access to jobs, and the purpose of safety net programs. The wedge issues include work requirements, cutting the food stamp program by 1/3 and replacing it with “food commodity boxes,” and capping the family size for receiving benefits. If these structural changes are enacted, they will leave a gap in services that will fall on non-profit organizations and churches to attempt to fill. Churches do not have, by any stretch of the imagination, the resources of the federal government. The government collects our tax money while stating that there is no funding to serve the basic needs of ordinary people. The PNBC Advocacy Day will address these issues directly.
The event begins with a 10:00 a.m. press conference held at Alfred Street Baptist Church, 301 South Alfred Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 to highlight how devastating the White House policies are to the poor and working-class families. Afterward, PNBC clergy, constituents, and other leaders will conduct legislative visits to Capitol Hill and hear from elected officials on their policy positions while presenting the denomination’s interest in promoting issues that address poverty/economic justice, health care, mass incarceration and voting rights. PNBC’s social justice agenda includes multiple activities throughout the year in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For additional information, please call 202-396-0558 or visit www.pnbc.org.
About PNBC
PNBC was founded in 1961 to give full voice, sterling leadership, and active support to the American and world fight for human freedom. PNBC’s global membership is estimated to be 2.5 million people.
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