Backers Rally Around Indicted Church Leader

Preaching Christian charity and urging caution against a rush to judgment, local and national African American Baptist leaders expressed support Thursday for the Rev. Henry Lyons, the president of the National Baptist Convention, who was indicted late Wednesday in Florida on charges of racketeering and grand theft.

“I am certainly going to be supporting Dr. Lyons in every aspect of his [legal] endeavors that I can support,” said the Rev. Joseph B. Hardwick, who heads the Western Baptist Convention, the West Coast affiliate of the 117-year-old national group.

“That includes [donating] money.”

The National Baptist Convention was once believed to be the largest African American religious group in the country, although Lyons has been accused of inflating its membership rolls.

Lyons has hired noted criminal defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey to join a cadre of lawyers defending him against the charges.

“Pray, if you don’t do anything else, that I find the means to get them [attorneys] paid,” he said Thursday at a news conference in Nashville, Tenn., where the convention has its headquarters.

The Rev. E. V. Hill, pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist church in Los Angeles and a self-proclaimed “staunch Lyons supporter” said Lyons was informed Tuesday that he would be charged but displayed no anxiety or fear.

“He expected it,” said Hill, who headed an internal church probe that concluded that no convention funds were taken by Lyons.

Lyons is charged with racketeering for allegedly taking millions that authorities say was supposed to be given to the cash-strapped National Baptist Convention over a period of years. He allegedly used the cash, much of which was deposited in a Florida account, to fund an extravagant lifestyle complete with a $700,000 waterfront home, luxury cars and diamond jewelry.

The two charges of theft stem from the alleged misappropriation of nearly $250,000 Lyons got from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to help rebuild arson-damaged churches.

Essentially, Lyons is accused of using vastly inflated figures for the membership of the venerable group to attract businesses eager to reach a large African American audience. Authorities allege that Lyons knew that the often-touted figure of 8 million or 9 million members was not accurate and that he and an aide manufactured a mailing list to try to support the bogus figure.

Also charged with racketeering was Bernice Edwards, a former convention employee who was convicted of embezzlement in Milwaukee.

A federal grand jury in Tampa continues to investigate Lyons’ finances. Lyons, who faces arraignment within the next few days, was released on $100,000 bail. He has vowed to clear his name, and in the meantime, to continue working for the convention.

Hill said he planned to send Lyons money to aid in his defense and would try to “get everyone I know” to send a contribution.

Hill argues that the funds prosecutors claim were illegally diverted from the church were actually honorariums and fees owed to Lyons.

The Rev. L.V. Booth of Cincinnati, one of the founders of the Progressive Baptist Convention and one of the ministers who led an earlier fund-raising effort for Lyons, said he would be happy to pick up the cause again, if asked.

“If a man is in trouble, if he’s sick, you don’t ask how did he get sick, you give him aid,” said Booth, who was invited to the recent Baptist convention in Los Angeles by Lyons.