Reforms Are Urged for Baptist Church Group

Declaring that “overwhelming damage” was done to the nation’s largest black Baptist denomination by the conviction of its former president on criminal charges, a leading New York pastor campaigning to replace him is calling for reforms and an end to the church’s “imperial presidency.”

In appearances this week in Los Angeles, the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, 49, said that if he is elected president of the National Baptist Convention USA in September, he will institute a “shared leadership” and across-the-board reforms. Those steps are the only way to heal divisions and address low morale in the wake of the Rev. Henry Lyons’ conviction, he said.

Richardson’s chief opponent is the Rev. E.V. Hill, pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, who has defended Lyons.

Lyons was found guilty in Florida of stealing money donated to rebuild burned Southern black churches and of bilking $4 million from companies that sought the convention’s mailing list to sell cemetery products, life insurance policies and credit cards. He faces related federal charges of fraud and tax evasion.

“We must be confessional that this was wrong, that it requires us to repent and move forward,” Richardson said in an interview.

On Tuesday, another defendant, Brenda Harris, 48, pleaded guilty to a single count of failing to inform police when a crime was being committed.

Richardson’s critique of the former president contrasted with recent comments by Hill, who has called Lyons a friend and said Lyons asked him to run. Hill said he would not forsake a friend. But in response to a question last week, he said Lyons had done wrong.

Hill argued, however, that the money involved in the Lyons cases was not from the denomination’s treasury, but from outside corporations, which he said are accustomed to losing money. But although some of the misappropriated funds came from businesses, about $250,000 was contributed by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to rebuild burned black churches.

Richardson avoided mentioning Hill’s name in an interview, but criticized those who he said were “squabbling over technicalities.”

If he is elected, Richardson said, the national denominational headquarters will work to assist local churches in growing and in attempts to address issues of poverty, joblessness, poor education, health care and housing on the local level.

“All these things come out of a spiritual center and a biblical mandate,” Richardson said. “In the African American community we have never separated Sunday from Monday.”

He also said Sunday school curricula would not only include scriptural studies but also lessons in African American history. “The time has not arrived in America where we can do without the African American church,” he said.