Local Suit Mirrors Baptist Scandal

Devout churchgoer Deloris Perkins, a retired Los Angeles criminal investigator, says two thoughts jumped to mind when she heard that the Rev. Henry Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, had been convicted of racketeering and grand theft last week.

The first: “There is a God!”

The second: “I hope that case helps stops this,” she said, pounding on a sheaf of legal papers alleging another financial scandal at another Baptist church--this one in the heart of Los Angeles, the venerable St. Paul Baptist Church on Main and 49th streets.

The lawsuit, filed by Perkins, church elder Lucille Arthur and others, alleges that St. Paul Pastor Joel Anthony Ward was responsible for spending $1.1 million of church money without adequate accounting or notification. The expenditures include a string of houses and other real estate, $50,000 in glass chandeliers and an elevator project that Ward allegedly failed to put out for bid or vote by the congregation as required by church bylaws.

Ward vehemently denies any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “lies from the pit of hell.”

Perkins and others say that the Ward and Lyons cases underscore a lack of financial accountability and other management problems that plague all too many African American congregations. Other Baptist churches, from Calvary Baptist Church in Pacoima to Concord Missionary Baptist Church in San Francisco, are similarly embroiled in bitter power struggles or allegations of gross financial mismanagement.

Last year, a national survey of 3,600 congregants in 141 black churches found that 54% of those surveyed said their churches faced financial problems and that 41% believed they did not receive enough information about church financial transactions and other decisions.

Robert Franklin, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, said complaints about financial accountability were more prevalent among Baptists and others in the “free-church tradition” than the more hierarchical Methodists and Episcopalians.

“The more autonomous churches complain they just don’t receive annual reports, updates on church expenditures or compensation packages of ministers,” said Franklin, whose six-denomination center represents the nation’s largest African American graduate theological seminary.

“These have been shrouded in secrecy, and lay members are now demanding sunshine,” Franklin said. “It’s an interesting time of shifting cultures from the old, 19th century style of informal bookkeeping--the elder deacon carrying numbers in his head and money in a cigar box--to expectations for sophisticated accounting, audits and other objective monitors.”

The Rev. E.V. Hill of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles said that he is frequently asked to mediate financial conflicts in Southland churches but that “90% of the cases are explainable.” He said disgruntled congregants typically use allegations of financial improprieties to stoke dissent as revenge for a loss of influence, dismay at changes or even marital spats.

Hill, a staunch Lyons supporter, continues to back the convention president and blames his conviction on racism by the all-white jury. He vowed that the conviction would be overturned on appeal, and said that the only impact on the nation’s largest African American denomination would be an increase in tension as several candidates jockey to succeed Lyons in elections scheduled this fall.

Franklin, however, is one of many calling for the resignations of Lyons and Hill--whose internal review committee cleared the president of wrongdoing. He said the Lyons affair has drained momentum from pressing projects, such as raising money for African American schools and bringing black males and fathers back into the church.

To the St. Paul group of dissenters--who call themselves “Bravehearts Christian Warriors”--the Lyons conviction was a divine gift to boost the profile of their own case.

The problems began shortly after Ward took the helm in 1997 and began instituting dramatic change.

He declared that the church’s $2-million coffers should be put to work rather than sit in a bank and began an ambitious agenda: buying and rehabilitating millions of dollars of property for low-income housing, creating jobs for the needy and, down the road, launching a nursing home for aging congregants and a 24-hour gospel radio station.

Ward also has introduced peppier music, leadership training classes, more Bible study and prayer time within the service.

Leading an impromptu tour of the church’s many redevelopment projects--all painted pink, the St. Paul color--Ward noted: “See that? That used to be a dope den. Now it’s a home for a low-income family. That worker over there? We gave him a job. He used to be on welfare.”

Many supporters, such as deacon board Chairman Roy Jenkins, applaud the changes. But others were taken aback by Ward’s rapid-fire pace and flashy style--which includes a penchant for gold and diamonds evident in his glittering Rolex watch, ring, bracelets and cuff links.

More troubling, say Jenkins and others, was a lack of financial accounting for the complicated property transactions. Arthur, 83, one of the senior church members, saw her beloved church endangered and led the legal protest.

“The church is part of me, and to see it going downhill really hurts,” Arthur said.