In two weeks Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Seattle will decide if embattled Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Leslie David Braxton will be asked by the Church’s members to vacate the pulpit. With a church that is pretty evenly split, if one believes the recent Annual Business Meeting votes can be any indication, with membership soundly rejecting The Church Leadership and Senior Pastor’s annual budget, only to have that budget resubmitted three weeks later pass with a very small margin of votes (that included the votes of paid staff members approving.

As the vacate the pulpit reality and vote get nearer the senior pastor in efforts to save his nearly two hundred thousand dollars annual compensation package from Mt Zion the past few weeks he has full court press ahead with many high profile spin doctor tactics, including untrue by omission and mean spirit mass psychology via his sermons and threatening prayers. One of those untrue by omissions was in a 11 pages booklet mailed to many Mt Zion members over the weekend pertaining to the elimination of Mt. Zion Prime-Time Broadcast from Washington State only Black Owned Broadcasting – Kris Bennett Broadcasting, Inc.(KBB, Inc.). This twenty one(21) year business partnership, with the first 10 years FREE, began on one of our smallest frequency (1000 watts) but our most highly rated community profit center as a non written gentlemen agreement between the then Senior Pastor and KBB, Inc. chairperson. The last 11 years was at huge discount charge for only one station and yet Mt. Zion worship services were simicasted broadcasted on all three KBB, INC radio stations. The latter two profit centers are our 5,000 watts non directional! all day gospel format located in Tacoma area and our 10,000 watts urban mainstream profit center located in renton Seattle area. Total added value of commercial air time was for just one of our broadcast facilities was over $338,000 saving to the church and played a major roles in both alleged claimed in increase membership and financial growth of the by church leadership. This fact was omitted in the booklet and lay the blame for taking the church off KBB, Inc. air waves on station owner. Which was not only omission by untrue but was indeed a LIE. It was pretty widely known through the local broadcast industry, as well as in the church’s trustee board, advisory council and the deacon board that the Senior Pastor stated he wanted to look at other broadcasting opportunities after a series of advermmericals appeared in The Seattle Medium newspaper from concern members of Mt. Zion. According to our internal source the Senior Pastor instructed his leadership to shop for a church broadcast home, this pastoral request was long before KBB, Inc. requested a written agreement. The current chair of the deacon board, Joel Hobbs, in his pleas for with KBB, Inc. to broadcast Palm Sunday worship service, acknowledge the pastoral broadcast home request. The immediate past chair of the trustee board during the few days of ! our discussion of the proposed agreement acknowledge it.In an earlier ‘holding Mt. Zion hostage’ e-mail to KBB, Inc. from another trustee board member – we are told the sister-in-law of the new trustee chair’s mother – implied it via requesting the status of the search from the church’s business administrator of a broadcasting facilities. Her e-mail to KBB, Inc.was heavy cc to apparently the church’s leadership and spiritual leader- the senior pastor. So apparently everyone that needed to know knew about the pastoral broadcast home requested search but KKB, Inc. This desperate attempt even went as far as inquire to high school broadcasting station. The search team, according to source, reported back to church leadership that no avails for the live PrimeTime broadcast was available. The pastor enter the meeting and stated he though he just was able to possible secured a 90 day month to month contract with the white conservative Edmond, Wash. FCC licenced station. So he did get involved apparently with the white ownership but wouldn’t bother to get involved nor negioate with the Black ownership. Most of his huge comp package come form KBB, Inc audience-THE BLACK COMMUNITY ! Another omission of true is the confidential standard industry wide proposed broadcast unsigned agreement between Mt. Zion and KBB, Inc. Before sending and preparing this agreement, we asked the former chair of the trustee, an attorney, if he could prepare a contract, however, before he could even possible prepare an agreement he was replaced by Braxton supporter Robert Nellams. This all happened in less than a week (his replacing) after that immediate past chair assured me and I agreed that we could work the agreement out. He did have some concerns with some of the items in the industry-wide standard broadcast agreement, including the tapes and CD’s property rights of the church but he was willing to negotiate a good win-win contract that we both could live with. Since this was a live unedited primetime broadcast, unlike other church delayed broadcast partner with submitted tapes and CDs, our main objective in using the industry-wide standard broadcasting agreement was to protect KBB, Inc. from any violation of industry music license requirements, FCC rules and protect the integrity of our FCC licenses. Furthermore, KBB, Inc. certainly wanted to be held harmless in some of the, in our opinion, problematic alleged liable personal bully pulpit tactics the senior pastor was preaching and allowing from the church. Plus we need to be in full FCC compliance regarding political candidates in those Nate Miles orchestrated political Sunday live broadcast. They were becoming very troublesome base on the ‘Fairest Doctrine’.Proposed agreement are nothing unless they are signed. This proposed agreement was a first dratf, never signed nor truly discuss or even negoteiated with the or by the new church leadership, and therefore, not a final draft as the weekend booklet implied. So what the purpose of shareing the non-negoated standard broadcast unsigned agreement with the church members distributed at the church office, unless it a is frivolous diversionary tactic of mass psychology on church spiritual soft members designed to distract from the real issues at Mt Zion. In the booklet to members from the church leadership they alleged KBB, Inc. double the cost in the proposal broadcast agreement but they fell to mention even with the doubling of the cost, the church was still below going marketplace rates for a live prime time broadcast heard over the air waves of any local broadcast station, includi! ng three Black owned radio stations with coverage from nearly Vancouver to Vancouver plus live screening to approximately 1 million Internet visitors monthly. So the senior Pastor and his new leadership apparently selfishness really blew a tremdonus great deal. Their inept handling of this simple businee opportunity, sadly to say for Mt Zion, was an ecomonic windfall for Kbb, Inc. by opening doors to other broadcast partners in the religous community that is honored with the blessed opportunities to expand thier ministry. The church’s 11 page booklet stated that copies of our e-mails correspondents as well as the confidential standard broadcast agreement unsigned proposal from KBB, Inc. to Mt. Zion are available at the church office, but the booklet never mention how much they are paying the white conservative Christian station. Since the proposed standard broadcast agreement from KBB, Inc is available at the church office the big question everyone is asking is why isn’t the current contract between Mt. Zion and the Edmond licenced white consertive Christian station available for member to review at the church office? Again, another classic case of untrue via omission. Lately coming from the Church there has been a lot of untrues, half truths, pointed blame toward other and lies, as the Senior Pastor often like to preach. However, we believe the information about removing the live PrimeTime Wo! rship Service of Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Seattle from KBB, Inc air waves are not only untrue but outrageous base on facts. Don’t take our word for it, unlike Mt. Zion Leadership and Senior Pastor tactics of half truth and omission we are including the e-mails in question in there entirety in this issue; please see page —–for those e-mails and you be the judge. If the real truth be know, it dosen’t take a rocket scientist to figure the apparent movitation factor behind the Senior Pastor action. Without fully realizing the invalueable service, strength and demands (Sundays SOLD out) of our radio stations this was an apparent attempt of Mt. Zion leadership to ununethically tried to apparently apply economic pressure tactic. Those tactic included the threatens to remove the live PrimeTime broadcast if Kbb, Inc would not not reveal the names of the concern members of Mt. Zion and attempt to get the advermerical out of The Seattle Medium newspaper.. He even got his member and Executive Minister, Evergreen Association of the America Baptist Conferences, Marcia Patton, to try apparently, according to her e-mails to area minist! ers, bring legal pressure by using up some misguided ill informed Black caucus of the Evergreen association. Now most of those Black caucus preachers and friends that attend that infamous meeting at Martin Luther King Jr. memorial Baptist Church in Renton anti- Black Press Willie lynch style attempted lynching live in spiritual uncertains, disgrace and embarrassment to their church, there community and themselves.They are appear to be running like roaches with so called citywide self restoration prayer vigils and more than normal revival meetings looking for a place to hide, you don’t hear their names mention anymore with any degree of acceptance on most community issuse. Although the weekend booklet denied that nearly a million dollars in reserve funds was not actual (audited financial church statement we examined are pretty cear in those years with the stated reserve fund issue)when Braxton became Senior Pastor nearly five years go they won’t say how much was in that fund, so as one can attest, certainly money was not a factor because the Senior Pastor and Church leadership boast and Bragg about the alleged un audited $1.8 million annual Church revenue. It certainly wasn’t overprice, because a smaller church than Mt. Zion immediately and gladly took the prime time slot and signed a standard industrywide broadcast agreement.