A Declaration Statement of an America in crisis exclaims a need of the
African American Church.

The Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC), led by its new President Dr. Timothy Stewart, will hold a press conference at the National Press Club located at 529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045 on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at 1 p.m. A Declaration Statement will be provided.

As the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the PNBC is compelled to step forward amidst the worsening crisis at the heart of American life to reaffirm the commitment of the Church of Jesus Christ to truth and justice. PNBC is sounding a clear alarm in a moment of spiritual and cultural confusion and pointing the way toward the redemption of this trying hour.

The blatant moral hypocrisy and rancid theological heresy of the so-called Christian Right have transformed the current political and cultural crisis into a deeper spiritual catastrophe. The skewed perception of the Christian faith in the press encouraged by a liberal enlightenment bias against religion, which consistently identifies it with the most vociferously ignorant and reactionary elements in public life has led to a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between the Christian Faith and the Public Square. Through the alchemy of media shorthand, the White and often racist Conservative Evangelical movement get identified with the Christian faith while the Black Church’s witness is reduced to Civil Rights “lite.”

This misplaced emphasis has effectively silenced the most authentic expression of the Christian faith in the modern world as it is subsumed under the headings of either the conservative evangelical or the liberal left. But it has always been the African American Church that has led the way forward along the moral arc of American history. PNBC is explicitly and intentionally enjoining the conversation as the alternative yet the most authentic Christian voice in this critical hour.
PNBC will continue efforts to lift the African American Church as a voice to be acknowledged and recognized as germane to all conversations relative to the Christian faith in America. Leading the efforts will be Dr. Calvin O. Butts, Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York, NY, who is serving as the new Chair of the PNBC Social Justice Commission.

About PNBC
PNBC is a vital Baptist denomination with a membership consisting of approximately 1.5 million people in the U.S. New generations of Progressive Baptists are continuing the struggle for full voter registration, education, and participation in society, economic empowerment and development, and the realization of universal human rights and total human liberation for all people. Visit pnbc.org.

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Contact

Linda Peavy
[email protected]
(216) 262-1029