The New York Declaration

The New York Declaration

October 14, 2019

Given by:

Social Justice Commission of the Progressive National Baptist Convention

We come to this historical moment deeply disturbed by the overwhelming confluence of troubling dynamics that have converged in a potentially devastating tide of spiritual, political and cultural chaos.  For some it appears that the current crisis emerged rather suddenly with the ascent of the present presidential administration, which through a torrent of lies, innuendos, perverted public policy initiatives and Machiavellian machinations simply overwhelmed our capacity to absorb and process it all.  But the current crisis is no flash flood.  The debris laden tide swelling around us is laced with pathogens years in the making.  Were the waters to recede with an overnight impeachment, the landscape of American life would yet remain scarred or years after and the soil of our republic, poisoned but the toxins left in its wake.  Nor will the unwholesome aftermath be so easily cleared, not the atmosphere so quickly cleansed of airborne disease.  And it’s raining.


As with any flood, the thin veneer of carelessly laid coverings is washed away exposing what is often the wretched corruption of what lies beneath.  Issues declared dead and long thought laid to rest but merely buried alive eddy to surface in swirling conflict.  Issues of race, of labor, of economic justice, of the bill of rights, issues of education, such as the fair administration and allocation of resources, of criminal justice etc., all covered by the thin sediment of sentimentally cheap religious ideologies of togetherness and glib, self-congratulatory discussions of incremental progress re-emerge as the deep fractures in the bedrock of our socio-cultural topography are once again exposed.  And the fissures run deep.


The marauding waters of our current historical surge, running roughshod and reckless has failed, in the nature of the case, to discriminate between our cherished social institutions leaving the Church of Jesus Christ no less damaged and exposed that the other artifices and edifices of our cherished American experiment.

Ø  Exposed is the spiritual rot, moral corruption and the delusional racism at the heart of White Conservative Evangelicalism

Ø  EXPOSED is its root and ground in an idolatrous worship of Whiteness masquerading as the Christian Faith.

Ø  Exposed is the idolatrous worship of Whiteness as the ultimate ground of value and final arbiter of all values heretofore referred to simply as American or Christian, such as Democracy, freedom, the rule of law, Justice and Christian Faith.

Ø  Exposed is the complicity of many African American preachers and parishioners who betray their worship at the same time alter, gouging their own eyes in an act of devotional sacrifice to tap the source of their supreme validation.

Ø  Exposed is the intersection where the worship of Whiteness and an adulterous Christian religion are wedded ideologically to an exploitative and predatory economic system.

Ø  Exposed is the virtual identity of White Christian Nationalism and White Evangelical Christianity betrayed by the invocation of the Divine to sanction the subduction of our deepest value claims, shameful crimes and transparent political corruption for the sole purpose of shoring up the decaying underpinnings of Western White Supremacy and identity.  In the end the  Conservative Evangelical Right is no less nihilistic than they claim the relativistic liberal left to be.  And it is no wonder since each share in the same self-righteous presumptions of Whiteness filtered through related but alternative  semantic grids.  But at the core of both is an identity that supersedes God as the Supreme source of human worth and the arbiter of value.

Ø  Exposed is the false narrative of a White righteous America, to which all others are at best an addendum and at worse a contaminant of its otherwise God ordained perfection.  We see clearly what you are.  Over against the collapse of the more popular expressions of the Christians Faith into the spiritual rot of a Materialistic, Nationalistic, Corporatized Americanity thinly veiled by the sanctimonious odor of enthusiastic Pentecostalism, comes THE CLEAR CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST TO RESIST!

Unlike the objective of Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail, this is no plea for cooperation, but rather the wholesale condemnation for the complete prostitution of the Christian Faith; of the idolatrous worship of Whiteness and the heretical synthesis of God and Nation.  We condemn and resist the moral bankruptcy of a perverted form of the Christian Faith in Black and White that affirms as Divinely ordered and sanctioned an economic system that places profit over people; the religion of wealth, the idolatry of celebrity; the culture of greed that encourages a criteria of success defined by the abundance of one’s of ignorant but trusting sentimentality to the detriment of the spiritual wellbeing of persons, the environment, the other of the most vulnerable among us.


We hear anew, in this hour and this world the summons of the Apostle Paul, “And be not conformed to this world: but by ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good , and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 1:2)


Likewise, we reject and resist the claim of the more cynical among us that the Christian Faith is the White Man’s religion or that Justice is tangential to the thrust of God’s redemptive work in human history declared in and through the person of Jesus the Christ and sustained through the activity of the Holy Ghost.  The fact that slave holders and those who trafficked in the souls of folk though out Western History sought to either excise, dilute or otherwise obscure the Biblical testimony to god’s emancipatory providence gives eloquent testimony to the revolutionary potential of God’s word wherever oppression abounds.  For, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches that the treasures in Egypts: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrew 11:24 – 27)

My Miracle Birth Story

As a second generation baptist preacher, I grew knowing God early in life and knowing there was a special calling on me. As long as I can remember, my parents to told me the peculiar way I was born and that I was born to be great for God's glory. The story goes that my mom, Sister Raba Gilbert, had unfortunately, had internal stomach issues and was forced to receive a hysterectomy. People didn't know, but for years she wore a colostomy bag.

Well one day at an evening service, Deacon Alfred O'Neal (from Jerusalem Baptist) went to my father, Rev. George Gilbert, Sr., who was a minister at Central Baptist Church and said, "Rev. Gilbert, I know you want a son. I can't wait to see him running around this church." My father, not wanting to embarras my mother, sheepishly, laughs and says, "O no, we are find with our daughter, Lisa. God has blessed us." Deacon O'Neal, didn't recieve that answer as truth, and said, "No Rev Gilbert, I know you want a son." And at that instant, fell to his knees and begin to pray for my mother's womb to carry a son.

Time went on, and Deacon O'Neal would see my father, and just start laughing. He would say, "Do you see that boy running around by your legs? Do you see that boy running around this church?" My dad, again not wanting to embarass my mother would just laugh this old deacon off. Suddenly, my mom begin to have morning sickness, and she could not explain it. She and my dad went to her doctor, and the doctor, explained that there was no need to see her, because it was impossible for her to conceive. A few weeks later, the morning sicknesses continued and she went back to the doctor and just begged for a sonogram. By everyone's astonishment, my mother was pregnant with me. Not only was I an unexplained conception, but I was delivered exactly seven (7) years, on the same birthday, as my sister, Lisa. Above my crib, hung a sign "Mark 10:27 - And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible."

Without a boasting spirit, I can truly say that I was created for greatness and peculiarity.

Don't give up

https://youtu.be/zp37Ts1GWAk

Prison Ministry

I serve on the Social Justice Commission of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Here is our statement!

DECLARATION STATEMENT: AMERICA IS IN CRISIS

Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
Dr. Timothy Stewart, National President
Dr. Tyrone S. Pitts, Interim General Secretary

EPHESIANS 6:12-13
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Once again, the body of Christ has been called upon by God to witness to the creative power of love, Justice, mercy and righteousness over the cruel and infernal powers of darkness that has usurped God’s creation and bent it to the will of political corruption, cruelty, avarice and greed. But the forces of darkness however apparent their ascendency may seem at this present hour, shall not ultimately prevail.

For the struggle before us is more than a mere contest of political will and ideological difference but rather a clear and consequential contest betwixt the darkness and the light. We will determine whether this nation shall go boldly forward into the future or cower in the shadows of an antiquated tribalism and join the list of the morally bankrupt fallen empires whose rattling bones crowd the dustbin of history – a rattling siren song that seems to have captured the moral and political imagination of far too many of our fellow patriots.

We stand firmly planted in a spiritual tradition committed to freedom in the deepest sense. And who better to understand its nature and value than those most often and most readily deprived of its blessings? We are here because we are devoted to the ideals of justice and equality as indicated in the noblest articulations of the American ideal; but not as mere abstractions to be touted emptily in idolatrous celebrations of an ideal American self that does not exist. We are here not to simply reinforce rhetorical commitments to abstract principles proclaimed in high places that never manage to trickle down to “the least of these”; but to demand practical responses to the concrete failures of our Republic to guarantee these realities in everyday experience. So, it can be said indeed(!) all lives matter in the abstract but clearly you must be reminded that Black lives matter in the concrete.

The African American Christian Church occupies a uniquely strategic position in the present situation being seated at the spiritual center of the political whirlwind now rocking the foundation of the American Republic; a whirlwind driven, we firmly believe, by the unfinished business of America’s stormy legacy of White racism and its perniciously tornadic spawn. As the Christian Church we, in principle, stand apart from those on the left and the right. As the body of Christ, we do not serve as mere mascots of the liberal left, sent by patronizing paternalists to serve as point on the head of their ideological spear. Nor do we set horses with those of the religious right who hide their rampant racism and hysterical hypocrisy amidst the existential ruins of a morally and theologically bankrupt spirituality. We unabashedly declare with the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:10-11), “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We have called this press conference in part because we realize that to ignore this reality, that is to say the pivotal role of race and spirituality in our present malaise is to court disaster in the upcoming mid-term elections. America, we have a problem.

Stated succinctly: The American Republic is in crisis. In light of this crisis we are compelled to remind America and her leaders of some essential truths.

1) Authentic and integral leadership is not pandering to public opinion in such a crisis. It may call for the sacrifice of mundane personal preoccupations with one’s political career on the sacred altar of the common good.

2) Journalism is not treating both sides of an issue as equally valuable because they appear to be held by two or more opposing but substantial parties; but rather in subjecting both sides equally to the truth regardless of who comes out ahead in the assessment. We reject the notion that an opinion or a position is of equal worth just because someone (usually White) happens to hold it.

3) “’No kingdom divided against itself can stand.’ (We) believe this government cannot endure, permanently

half [suffering arbitrary state surveillance, subjugation and cruelty] and half free.”

4) It is absolutely crucial to vote. But we hasten to add that it is not enough to remind people of an abstract obligation to vote. It is time for the powers to be to give the people a positive reason to vote. No version of the politics of fear is acceptable. Relying on cheap, morally tinged rhetorical tricks and manipulation instead of dealing practically with substantial issues particularly on race questions is what got us back here in the first place.

5) The presidency of Donald Trump is not the cause of the American malady but a symptom, a consequence, an effect; although by the aide and abetting of the present administration the sickness has received license and worsened.

6) It is Christian heresy to call any nation that forsakes the needy, the sick, the poor or mistreats the foreigner in their midst, blessed. This is to say the policy and practices of the current administration and the party in power are clearly and irredeemably Anti-Christ.

7) You can identify the true Christian Church by what it identifies with. The true Church identifies with the poor, the prisoner and the oppressed; the vulnerable and the at risk; the sick and the disabled; the lost and the mentally ill. The Christian Church cedes preeminence and affirms the primacy of the Kingdom of God in all matters finite and eternal. The Body of Christ does not identify with the interests of empire. It does not identify with the principle of profit or power over persons. It does not identify with racial supremacy. No true Christian believer prioritizes patriotism over piety or assumes the false equivalence of God and country. The identification with Christ and his Kingdom supersedes and relativizes ALL other worldly commitments.

Mathew V. Johnson
Author, DC Declaration
Co-chair, Social Justice Commission
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Dr. Timothy Stewart
President
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Dr. Calvin O. Butts
Chair, Social Justice Commission
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Purchase my book: "The Black Church - From Triage To Triumph"

Click on link for information and/or to purchase:



https://www.bookemon.com/book_read_flip.php?s=1&book_id=815922&check=d92d8747cb83cca7d5870807d7827c44

A History of Racism

Click on the link to see my presentation, via the sway app, on racism.  I think it is a great conversational as well as educational piece to share.

https://sway.office.com/PdF7zRAM8IgGISo3?ref=Link&loc=mysways

Sermon Videos

Click on the link to see some sermons preached over the years.

https://sway.office.com/yJVHdYrhjKqbifcJ?ref=Link&loc=mysways

Progressive National Baptist Convention Social Justice Commission Statement from Mid-Winter Board Meeting 2019

PROGRESSIVE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION

SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMISSION

·       The struggle for Social Justice is essential to the core identity of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.  The DC Declaration of October 9, 2018, is the theological foundation of our orientation to the struggle for social justice.

·       The Social Justice Commission recognizes the intersection between culture and the economy in the nexus of forces that constitute black oppression.

·       The Social Justice Commission, in coordination with the National Congress of Black Women, Inc., is encouraging that all PNBC (and her affiliates) withdraw their support from radio stations and their corporate sponsors who further and promote, through their music, self-hatred, violence, criminality, devaluation of life and degradation of black women.

·       The Social Justice Commission recognizes that the on-going rash of police killings of unarmed black people is the manifestation of the systemic evil and a reflection of the deep-rooted presence of toxic racism.

·       The Social Justice Commission calls upon all people of good will to join us in a full and complete divestment from Wells Fargo and/or any of its subsidiaries due to the symbolic and practical relation they have to systemic, corrupt (even demonic), corporate exploitation of the poor and vulnerable citizenship.

We took over the DC Government against gentrification

https://wjla.com/news/local/pastors-disrupt-dc-council-meeting-demand-action-on-rising-water-bills