This year, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC) celebrates its 55th anniversary. We are in our emerald year of providing God’s work around the world. The PNBC denomination was founded through the Civil Rights Movement and became the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our mandate to advance human and civil rights has never been more evident.
Not even Rip Van Winkle could sleep through the turbulent times through which we are passing. The resurgence of racism, the future of the Supreme Court, the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, the future of the Affordable Health Care Act, police brutality, and a biased criminal justice system, all make it imperative that we wake up and sound the alarm to stir our people to participate in this year’s election.
Additionally, we are being failed by the government systems that were put in place to protect us. As proof, you can look no further than the poisoning from contaminated water of children and families in Flint, Michigan. On April 4, the 48th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I will participate in an ecumenical gathering at First Trinity Baptist Church with Pastor Ezra Tillman in Flint to support its citizens. We will march and call for the resignation and prosecution of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder for atrocities committed against Flint residents.
Beyond the state of Michigan, the nationwide statistics that demonstrate how African-Americans are treated in the criminal justice system are alarming. The list below is comprised from research gathered by our social justice partner, the NAACP.[1] These facts cannot be ignored:
- African-Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population
- African-Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites
- 1 in 100 African-American women are in prison
- 5 times as many whites are using drugs as African-Americans, yet African-Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites
Most dangerously, our voting rights are being destroyed. Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, over thirty states have changed their voter registration laws; making it more difficult for African-Americans, Hispanics, the elderly, and college students to register to vote. PNBC is acting now to help eradicate the onslaught of suppressive tactics by those who choose to keep us from experiencing the rights that we are afforded as United States citizens. Our mission of equipping pastors and churches to be effective in ministry; lifting our voice on behalf of the voiceless is increasingly more urgent. The African-American church is alive and well, but we need your help.
PNBC is organizing a nationwide campaign to register 200,000 new voters through our more than 2,000 churches. We are collaborating with the SCLC, NAACP, and other organizations to register a total of 1,000,000 voters by the general election. The answer to voter suppression is voter education and voter participation.
We must assure that our family and friends vote in the upcoming election to make a difference in the outcome. This is what we call our Progressive Factor. PNBC offers a free resource, Faith Leaders Toolkit for Civil Engagement, available to any organization that wishes to create a voter registration drive. Created by the Freedom Sunday Coalition, it is completely adaptable to your faith-based or secular group. To track progress, we are asking that organizations submit event information and the number of newly registered voters to voter-registration@pnbc.org.
Amen, Pastor! Well stated argument for why it is imperative that we vote in large numbers in this upcoming and every election. “A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People”.
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Continued….!!
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Thank you Pastor foe clearly defining why we must vote!!!!
Anyone unsure of who to vote for I suggest you vote for NO ONE..Jesus didn’t vote I don’t think his disciples did either. Jesus is LORD over ALL regardless. to be safe if you don’t like Donald & unsure of Hillary vote for NO ONE. Be blessed
What did y’all forget JOHN 3:16 already? No you didn’t as long as GOD loves you you people are happy! Easter was just this last Sunday. All you Americans forgot “Tho/YOU SHALL NOT KILL” so quickly. It amazes me how people FORGET GOD after Church, Synagouge, Mosque & the Dance Club on Saturday. ROMANS 3:10 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; How could a Christian be pro-choice that to me is a delusion if you’re for it.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
#REPENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes we as black must vote and educate ourselves on all the lies and deceptions that go on much like the days after the voting rights act .! Instead of watching these ignorant reality shows and some other things we think are important. They think that that can lie and deceive to swing things their way that’s what they are used to doing. Blacks people and all people that are minority’s need the watch pray and be aware.
The “church” doesn’t need to be in touch with the world, you have that backwards. The world needs to be in touch with the church, by which I mean, God. Perhaps if this were the case, the US and other nations would be a better place in which to live. Please do not blame the church for the conditions of the world, blame the world. The church also doesn’t force people to come to God, you have to accept God for yourself, reading and obeying his word is the first step.
All people of color need to get up off their asses and VOTE in November.
The GOP has done everything possible to attempt to stifle our votes on Election Day.
First they came up with the bogus Voter ID law, then the Supreme Court along with that asshole Scalia struck down the most important sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Bill.
In addition the GOP has done quite a bit of gerrymandering and re-districting to make sure that the folks who usually vote DEMOCRATIC have less polling places which results in longer lines, they have shortened the early voting process, etc.
Only those who are INFERIOR AND INCOMPETENT CHEAT-so all of the above actions show the real colors of the GOP!!!!!!!!
VOTE BECAUSE OUR LIVES DEPEND UPON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES!
Yes your right Linda last month when I went to vote for Ted Cruz dammed if I did have to show some form of ID that 3 extra seconds it took to whip out that DL I could have been standing there reading my ballot
Meanwhile in SOME neighborhoods there are MORE CHURCHES THAN GROCERY STORES. Pastor please stop talking about what the government should do….and instead address AND PUT INTO ACTION what the zillions of Black churches should be doing,..I know (some) are doing it; but when as a whole are Pastors, and church members going to PROTEST the violence. Always talking about some Bible Study!! And, for what??!! Most people have been in church for decades AND SHOULD KNOW WHAT’S IN THE BIBLE BY NOW. The traditional church is sooooo out of touch with the real world
You right there is a church on every corner sometimes two but yet our community is in dysfunction. My ppl maybe just maybe this worshipping of budda is the thing that is keeping us down and keeping us from worshipping our true source of power. For some reason we forgot that we were force to call budda our lord and savior .I say budda instead of jesus because there is no difference both of them are idols created by man.
The seven degenerates who committed or conspired to commit murder should be locked away no matter their skin color, no it doesn’t add to the disparity per se’. The problem is African Americans are locked up more frequently and receive stiffer penalties and/or prison time for the same crimes committed my others. Is that a coincidence or systemic? As far as the drugs in America, how did they get here? Start there, but please suggest a resolution or a solution, clearly it can’t be to lock away everyone of color.
“five times as many whites use drugs….but African Americans are locked-up 10 times more than whites.”
Drugs got here the same way Japanese cars got here, there was a demand
Drug use is now glorified in society start there, go back to showing and telling people
about the destruction drug use causes, should there be a stigma placed on drug use YES because even that will discourage new use and encourage some to seek help and get off. And yes blacks do represent a disproportionate number of incarcerated but you also must acknowledge we commit a disproportionate amount of crime that plays a factor as well.
Progressive? Interesting since it’s the left that wants to limit religious freedoms when it comes to gov mandates, as far as drug use and incarceration drug dealers not users represent the large inmate population (remember the flight attendant with 7 pounds)
I doubt that was for personal use, I just came from the Emergency Dept where I work
A mother came barreling in scrapping the bottom of her car jumped out ran in screaming her son just over dosed, yeah more drugs in America, sure treat those with a drug addiction but traffickers lock-um up BAW had an article yesterday on 7 people arrested for murdering a lottery winner, are they part of the mass incarceration disparity?
“People of Faith” are no different from anyone else when it comes the voting their interests. If they want a fascist like Cruz, or a person who practices and promotes the social material system of white supremacy, like Trump, they should vote for either. If they want a person of practices and promotes a system of justice, they will vote or Sanders, or they will vote for the status quo, Clinton.
We’re voting for the lesser of the two evils now. Our country is on life support, we should to pray a “new medicine” will become available before we die.
Good points by the Pastor. Really believe we need to see the drug laws changed as it hurts minority males the worse.
However, the Pastor missed the mark spiritually: needs to be reaching out and calling for our young minority males to turn from violence and crime, while changing their hearts to God. Spiritually strong young males will make our communities better and they will be better leaders, fathers and husbands.
You’re right Nancy. Crime rate is horrific in the black communities and only people committing the crimes can change the dynamic.
This article is so very true. Black people really Need To Vote in this election! You should “Always” Vote in Every Election!
WAKE UP BLACK PEOPLE! VOTE IN FULL FORCE AS IF YOU ARE VOTING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA AGAIN ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016!
November 1, 2016