Chairman, The Seattle Medium Newspaper Group
By Chris H. Bennett
Chairman, The Seattle Medium
Why did the founders of 24 Countries deliberately establish a Constitutional Amendment to separate the powers of the Church and the State? Perhaps the answer lies in what is happening at one of Seattle’s most prestigious churches, the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle where many members have stated they feel the hostile worship environment is apparently similar to prison or jail under the leadership of Sr. Pastor Aaron Williams, and former Interim Police Chief now Chair of the Trustee Board, Harry Bailey. Under their leadership Church and State seem to be co-mingled rather than separate. For example, utilizing the services of a police officer, who, according to sources, is allegedly responsible, to some degree, for the U. S. Justice Department being in town to investigate corruption and misconduct in the Seattle Police Department. It is rumored and alleged that former Interim Police Chief Bailey introduced him to the Mount Zion Baptist Church Brotherhood for a mentor training assignment for which he was allegedly paid overtime by the Seattle Police Department, according to Bailey, “…this guy is not a racist, he worked for me.” This alleged corrupt cop later received Mount Zion’s Father of the Year Award. Are we dealing with rocket scientist stuff or just apparently rewarding trusted friends?
The downtown “powers that be” placed Rev. Aaron Williams, Sr. Pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church on the U. S. Justice Department inspired Community Police Commission despite Williams’ long-time, then non-resident of Seattle status, minimum pastoral experience, and unknown civil rights background. Furthermore, out of retirement, Former Assistant Chief, Harry Bailey, was tabbed as Seattle Police Department’s interim Chief.
One of Bailey’s early actions as the Interim Police Chief was to terminating all of the Police Department Assistant Chiefs and complete negotiations for firing of the then current Police Chief. After the Interim Police Chief returned to Mount Zion he became Sr. Pastor Rev. Williams’ alleged right hand man, and with pastoral support was elected Chair of the Trustee Board while remaining Chief of Church Security. Traditionally at Mount Zion, no one person could hold two ministry positions.
NO one can be sure if the former Interim Police Chief was allegedly institutionalized with the Donald Trump’s TV like apprentice show ” you are fired”. However, similarities apparently occurred at Mount Zion, as the newly elected Trustee Chair’s first and most controversial action was apparently to over- rule a recent Trustee agreement that allowed an 89 year-old homebound Church member to remain in leased Church housing at the $1500 per month she was paying rather than raise the rent which would have caused her eviction. The newly elected Trustee Board Chair, Bailey, sent her a certified letter to apparently economically evict this 89 year-old church member from Mount Zion rental houses by increasing her rent an extra $1000 per month to $2500.00 per month. For that, Bailey apparently took the heat for Williams as he apparently did for the Seattle Mayor with the police department, got a Jesse Jones “get Jesse” segment on KIRO TV. According to church sources, the 89-year-old tenant apparently was the only tenant given this increase. Insane? A violation of the age and disability act? Mean-spirited? Certainly NOT kind, gentle, Christ-like or demonstrating love as Jesus taught in His only Command: “Love one another as I Love you…”, as preached from many pulpits?
At the last all church meeting, according to former State Rep. Dawn Mason, this Trustee Chair, the former Interim Police Chief, is now on an apparent mission to “weed” Mount Zion of its most valued resource – its valuable real estate property and this allegedly without a genuine appraisal of the entire property but with a restricted appraisal of the land only. Surely as Dawn Mason stated, also, “…legally problematic…” This restricted ‘snake oil’ apparently was sold to a majority of those voting to sell the Annex on June 17, 2016 apparently ignorant of Robert’s Rules of Order, the Parliamentary Authority of the Church according to Mount Zion Baptist Constitution. Presiding over that meeting was a member of the Royal Esquire Club with demonstrated questionable knowledge of parliamentary procedures. Generally, given the conflict and controversy surrounding the sale of the property, both sides to the conflict would have negotiated the moderator and the agenda before the meeting.
Meanwhile several other real estate transactions of church properties will show properties have been sold or are waiting to be sold. For example, in Bellevue property apparently on the light rail path – sold; Redonda Beach property sold and a last willed Estate in the Mount Baker community valued at approximately $1.5 million with donor’s “desires” for it to be a pastoral parsonage at Mount Zion has been waiting for closing since December of 2015. Last but not least, the undervalued Church Annex building, valued at $3.5 to $4 Million over the Trustees’ asking price, according to real estate experts, may have possibly been sold, according many corners of church rumor mills, some feel before the votes were finally counted /tallied on June 17, 2016.
If the donor of the Mount Baker Estate was still with us she probably would not be able to get a loan in today’s market from the banks that these retired bankers retired from because of the on-going red-lining issue many of these Trustees apparently witnessed during their banking careers. Matter of fact President Obama fired the Chairman of one of the nation’s largest banks for redlining and “under water” policies that put many from the poor communities out of home ownership – many of these banks operate local branches and yes some of these trustees were high ranking executives in these institutions. The donor of the Mount Baker Estate was one of the Black trailblazing public school principals that bridged the gap that allowed one Mount Zion Trustee to become a principal at two different high schools. He apparently voted to sell her donated property below market value without an appraisal, which has not closed despite an early-acquired date of December 2015 with a sell closing date of June 3, 2016; it still has not closed!
Church and State issues? You bet! Mount Zion is a Congregational Church. Its power resides in its membership; according to its constitution, no board or auxiliary can usurp the authority of the membership. Yet, the Church Trustees and Senior Pastor without rescinding the vote of the membership “not to sell” somehow got a very small “to sell” majority vote passed and not the required 2/3 vote. The majority vote passing with the engaged services of a Royal Esquire member, apparently with limited knowledge of parliamentary procedures presiding over this very important Church meeting on a very controversial issue. The last meeting on April 29, 2016 ended abruptly by the Sr. Pastor/moderator without allowing a motion to table the motion, which was properly seconded, to go forward. Immediately after this meeting the Sr. Pastor, Aaron Williams, was accused of assaulting a disabled senior, which resulted in a court hearing.
Meanwhile, fairness at the June 17, 2016 meeting, at a minimum, would dictate that both sides to the matter at hand collaborate and agree on a moderator skilled in Parliamentary procedures and certainly the Chair of the Trustee Board bringing the motion would not have been one of two people counting the ballots. One skilled in Parliamentary procedures would not have allowed a vote to sell without first rescinding the original vote “not to sell” on February 28, 2016, but the Trustee Chair, former Interim Police Chief, Bailey, decided it was not a requirement— a decision surely to be questioned in other venues. Can you imagine a nightclub member conducting an important Church business meeting on a Friday night?
The Church is not a police department; police are trained to “kill” and “to protect and serve”. A church is in the spiritual business of converting and saving souls via spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Church is not a redlining banking institution, or a school to prison pipeline from the King County Superior Courts. Any Black administrator should know better based on what they should have seen. Today, apparently, Mount Zion Baptist Church is as close as you can get to a “Police State”, with a Trustee Board chaired by a former Interim Police Chief of arguably one of the most corrupt police departments in the country causing U.S. Justice Department oversight and a disgrace to the City of Seattle and its surrounding communities with a Senior Pastor of one of what used to be – before his arrival as Sr. Pastor — the largest African American Churches in the community sitting on a do nothing Community Police Commissioner Board with allegations of conflicts of interests . No matter how you try to cut it, a church cannot operate like a redlining bank, an unjust court system or a school to prison public school system. Without offering judgment, surely any one that attempts to overthrow the governance of God’s Church is doomed to go to hell in a hand basket. Biblically speaking, “Thou shall not kill…” and thou shall not mess with My Father’s Temple! Governmentally speaking, with all the alleged “code blue” intimations and allegations of abuse of power at Mount Zion, now we should all understand the Founding fathers’ need for ” Separation of Church and State”.
