By TSD Newsroom
Members of the Tennessee Progressive Baptist Council (TPBC) last Sunday took to the pulpit of Monumental Baptist Church to call for an end to the “unjust killing” of unarmed people of color by law enforcement.
During an afternoon press conference, the TPBC addressed concerns related to police brutality and other issues challenging African-American communities in various parts of the nation, including Memphis.
On his “Black Thought” television show the next day, the Rev. Dr. Noel G. Hutchinson Jr., the TPBC president, said, “Heretofore, you’ve not really heard from the church (on these issues).
“If you think about it, our major contribution, shamefully said, in the last few weeks and months has been ‘Blue Sunday’ (a salute to law enforcement). We went in two weeks from protesters on the bridge to having a blue Sunday.”
The TPBC is made up of Memphis churches, the only churches the Progressive Baptists denomination has active in the state. The collective statement presented Sunday represents “the beginning of how we will address these issues,” Hutchinson said on Monday.
The press conference was a collaborative effort, said Hutchinson.
“We got together and decided that enough is enough. We said that since our denomination is the denominational home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that we would have to take the progressive out of our name if we didn’t stand up for justice.”
During the approximately 20-minute conference, Hutchinson read the TPBC statement. It tied recent fatal shootings to a practice going back decades. It also made reference to last year’s police killing of unarmed Memphis teen Darrius Stewart and noted that none of the 24 instances of Memphis Police Department shooting over a 5-year period had resulted in an indictment.
Reading from the statement, Hutchinson said that set of facts “raises questions of the unjust application of appropriate force when law enforcement encounters people of color.”
With rare exceptions, the voice of the church has been noticeably silent, he continued, adding that TPBC has decided to speak.
The TPBC demands the “end of African Americans being tried by the gun of a rogue police officer rather than by a jury of 12…The murder of unarmed citizens is never acceptable. We also demand fair and equal treatment from the judicial system when involving cases of people of color.”
The council pledged to “work with federal, state and local legislators to shape the policy which has allowed the culture of unjust treatment to exist. We will also continue to work, as we have been, in addressing the violence in our community, which is a separate issue.
The TPBC affirmed the work of law enforcement.
“In our churches are police officers some of whom, past and present, have been of high rank in the police force,” said Hutchinson said. “Recently, misguided individuals have taken on the task of killing police officers. The unjust killing and shooting of African Americans and the assassination of innocent police officers is unacceptable.”
Some in the African American community have rushed to support the police while ignoring the issue that was first present, said Hutchinson, reading the statement.
That issue is “the unarmed, unjust killing of people of color by law enforcement…We feel that if we address the worth of black lives all the other issues will fall into place.
The council issued a call for clergy, the faith community and others of good will across d ethnicities to “stand with us in affirming the value of black lives and the issue of blatant, selective police brutality. In doing so we affirm the worth of all humanity.”
The churches and pastors involved are: Dr. Noel G. Hutchinson Jr., First Baptist Church Lauderdale; the Rev. Wade C. Bryant, Monumental Baptist Church; the Rev. Anthony D. Henderson, Beulah Baptist Church; the Rev. Dr. Reginald Porter, Metropolitan Baptist Church; the Rev. Wendell Coward, Greater Mt. Zion Baptist Church; the Rev. Dr. James Netters and the Rev. Melvin Watkins, Mt. Vernon Baptist Church-Westwood; the Rev. Alvin Fleming, Morning View Baptist Church; the Rev. William McKinley, Greater Middle Baptist Church; the Rev. Dr. Harvey Jackson,
Mt. Moriah-Baptist Church Carnes; the Rev. Dr. James Delaney, St. John Baptist Church, Pendleton; the Rev. Stanford L. Hunt, Salem-Gilfield Baptist Church; the
Rev. Victor Benitez, Serenity Baptist Church; The Rev. Dr. Andre Johnson, Gift of Life Ministries; and the Rev. Roger Brown, Greater Whitestone Baptist Church.
