Thoughts… from the Chairman

By Chris H. BennettSetting the record straight… Recently in this newspaper and on our broadcast stations there have been concerns raised about Mount Zion Baptist Church (Mt. Zion), one of Seattle’s largest Black Churches. Because of on-going community concerns and misinformation related to our media groups there are three areas requiring immediate clarification for the record. These are: the right of concerned members of Mount Zion to publish advertorials in the Seattle Medium and in other local publications; the discontinuation of Mt. Zion’s live Sunday morning radio broadcast on KRIZ/KYIZ/KZIZ, which dissolved a 21 year partnership with Washington State’s only African American owned and operated radio stations; and finally the organized effort and attempt to destroy, weaken and compromise the Black Press, particularly, The Seattle Medium Newspaper Group. Rights of Concerned Members to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press The Sr. Pastor of Mount Zion on many occasions has expressed his opinion that ‘church business belongs in the church’. This opinion was stated repeatedly during the “save our church campaign” organized by members of First A.M.E. (First Church) to save their church. Mount Zion’s Sr. Pastor from the pulpit on the Church’s prime-time-live broadcast over our radio stations blasted the press in general, and the Black Press in particular, for putting First A.M.E.’s business in the newspapers. In the opinions of many, this was NOT Mount Zion’s business. I was at that particular Sunday morning worship service at Mount Zion (my church) where I had to force myself to sit through and listen to the Sr. Pastor as he blasted the Black Press in a bully pulpit style pastoral tirade. Like Mount Zion, First A.M.E. also had a radio ministry airing over our stations at that time, and like Mount Zion’s Sr. Pastor the then Sr. Pastor of First A.M.E. used the pulpit and the airwaves to blast some of the members of that congregation and the Black Press for airing his ambitious desire to sell all of First A.M.E. Church properties, including the church’s prime Seattle real estate and relocate the church to south King Country next to a sewer treatment plant. We are proud of our abilities through our various media outlets to have assisted community friends, neighbors, families and extended families to keep First A.M.E. from selling it’s church property, and preserving a historic landmark and institution in our community in the process. Some First Church members, we are told, started tithing to an ambitious “Save Our Church Fund” at a local bank. Furthermore, we are now happy to report, according to a First Church member and retired King County Judge, the split church is apparently mending and healing — under their new pastor. Now if this was “church business” as Mount Zion’s Sr. Pastor claimed, why didn’t he practice what he preached? For the record, the Sr. Pastor on behalf of the church purchased advertorials in the Seattle Medium and on our radio stations to rebut the advertorials placed by the concerned members of Mount Zion. In an effort to help reconcile the apparent evolving conflict both sides of the controversy were invited on our stations to appear on our very popular morning talk show “Community Potpourri” to address what was thought at that time to be a minor, and resolvable issue; that has since become known as the Mount Zion mess. This forum could have been an excellent opportunity for the two interested parties to meet and possibly resolve their differences with perhaps some help from the Potpourri crowd, as we love to call these loyal supporters. Furthermore, the Sr. Pastor could have learned early on the identity of at least one concerned member who was willing and available to courageously appear before a public radio audience — without cowardice — to meet him (the Sr. Pastor) on common ground, which was considered safe for both parties, to confront and address with possible resolution the issues of concern at Mount Zion.The Sr. Pastor of Mount Zion chose not to come on the planned day of debate, but rather chose to come the following day when the concerned member was not available. As a result of this he received approximately 50 minutes of free airtime on Community Potpourri with no opponent to rebut his contentions and assertions. Were his actions in the spirit of going to your fellow church members or associates to seek remedies? Or was it divinely correct to blast over the airwaves those who disagree with the pastor and some officers using the airwaves and the pulpit as a bully pulpit to intimidate members? If the concerned Members of Mount Zion are unable to seek and/or find remedies to their concerns about church business by taking these to the Sr. Pastor and other church officials then it is understandable why they chose to go public. Just as Mount Zion’s Sr. Pastor chose to unconditionally offer his support for the then embattled, and now former Sr. Pastor of First AME, these concerned members of Mount Zion apparently took a chapter out of the “Save our Church” book at First Church in order to save their church-Mount Zion. Apparently, organizing and putting resources and time into saving Mount Zion include purchasing advertorials in the local media, including The Seattle Medium Newspaper with documentation to support their ads. NOTE: The Seattle Medium has its own independent research and documentation with regards to this issue as well. And in all fairness, at least one of the advertorials was rejected because it didn’t meet The Seattle Medium’s editorial, journalistic, and discretionary standard of fairness and objectivity.The over zealous attempts to identify the concerned members of Mount Zion has apparently reached deep into Mount Zion’s Board of Deacons and the Trustee Ministry with many allegations including: threats of legal action and outrageous behavior, including e-mails from that august body of Satanic hate. Is this the type of rhetoric and behavior church leaders should embrace?If organized efforts by ministerial alliance associations try to force the identity of concerned members of Mount Zion by attempting to destroy the Black Press via pulpit ministry codes using unholy war maneuvers against the Black Press, then you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to determine what might happen to those concerned members of Mount Zion if they were identified.For the record, this disrespect and disregard for the Black Press by the two pastors go back several years to when the Sr. Pastor at Mount Zion and the then Sr. Pastor of First AME were the ONLY persons to object to this writer being in a called community meeting with King County Executive Ron Sims and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert over the killing of Robert Thomas, Sr. by an off-duty King County Deputy Sheriff. Neither the County Executive nor the Sheriff publicly expressed any misgivings about this writer being in the called community meeting, Today, many still wonder WHY these two newly arrived to Seattle pastors objected to our presence or as they put it ‘the press’ meaning the Black Press? If they would have known their history they should have known that it was under my leadership as President of The Black Press of America (NNPA) that started and lead the successful drive to impeach the Governor of Arizona, Edward Mecham, after he rescinded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Holiday in Arizona. If they had simply asked anyone, including the person that had the cell phone on during the community planning meeting for the Sheriff and the County Executive, they would have been told that this writer never has, and never will need the permission of these new to Seattle pastors or anyone else to help Black people and the Black community in general. If they had connected the dots in the community or in their church, even King County Executive Ron Sims (a member of Mt. Zion) would have told them that. Dissolution of over 21 years of partnership with State’s Only Black Owned Radio Stations…Like most of you I, also, wonder why after over 21 years of live prime time broadcast service, over the air waves of our broadcasting networks – with 10 years FREE and the next 11 years at huge discounts, all un-acknowledged except by the Pastor Emeritus — the Sr. Pastor expressed a desire to remove Mount Zion from our broadcast ministry. This expressed desire was confirmed by both a Trustee and the co-chair of the Deacon Board at Mt. Zion. For the record, this 21-year arrangement between Mount Zion and Kris Bennett Broadcasting, Inc.,Washington State’s only locally black owned and operated radio stations, began with a gentlemen’s hand shake agreement under the previous pastoral administration and was affirmed by the congregation in an annual business meeting. Unfortunately, this 21 year radio ministry partnership with Mount Zion (which Mt. Zion benefited with approximately $338,000 of retail added value at no charge) ended un-gentlemanly without a single phone call from the Sr. Pastor nor the Chairperson of the Trustee Ministry. It was stated from the pulpit on Easter Sunday that negotiations were on-going for the broadcast ministry, well it wasn’t with us. Perhaps it was on-going with the announced new broadcast entity for Mount Zion on the up-north conservative, Southern (white) Christian programmed station with little to NO Black audience and inferior watts (according to the FCC radio directory). I guess the ice of one White Christian conservative radio station is colder than our three stations. Well our wattage and Black audience are far greater (colder) by any stretch of the imagination. Once again, we the predominately Black members of Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle — a black Church — are being asked by Mt. Zion’s leadership to financially support, through tithes and offerings, Mt. Zion’s broadcast ministry on a White conservative radio station outside of our community that we know very little about. If you don’t pay your tithes and offering your name and the names of your family members will be published on a church political roster as non-paying, and non-giving to the church. For the record, an agreement was sent by Kris Bennett Broadcasting and was acknowledged to have been received by the Trustee Chair and copied to the Sr. Pastor and other Trustees. The Trustee Chairman wrote via e-mail a desire to continue the live prime time broadcast on our radio stations while Mount Zion determined what other broadcasting options were available to them. Okay, right! Can you believe this request of their attempted “wait and see” gamesmanship, in writing? However, in a good faith effort to continue the 21 YEARS Oof broadcast partnership and a spiritual plea from the co-chair of the Deacon Board we allowed Mt. Zion’s Palm Sunday broadcast to go forward. Again, not a word of appreciation or a simple ‘Thank You’ was received from either the Sr. Pastor or the Chairperson of the Trustee Ministry. The final self-imposed deadline by the Trustee Ministry passed and the following day the Trustee’s “Dear John” response came; it was too late. The availability of the possible opening on our Sunday radio broadcast was announced via our radio stations, and within hours it was spoken for and properly affirmed. We went about this in a business-like manner. We did not hold Mount Zion hostage as one of the Trustees claimed in a Jim Jones “holier than thou” e-mail even after we had already broadcast the Palm Sunday service; nor did we attempt to “blackmail” Mount Zion into signing the agreement as the chair of Trustee Ministry at Mount Zion implied in the Mount Zion’s advisory council meeting last Friday evening, according to some advisory members. Believing The Black Press, HER, or Her Mysterious Alliance of Black Ministers?According to the white female Executive Minister of the Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches (HER) and a member of Mount Zion, Marcia Patton’s e-mail, “There has been a storm brewing in the Black press because of unsigned letters in the Medium from Concerned Citizens of Mt. Zion about recent Mt. Zion affairs. At a meeting of Black clergy called by the Black Caucus of Evergreen the letter in the attached link to a petition was drawn up.” Well, just before Friday’s Rhythm and News Broadcast, I received a surprising unsolicited phone call from Pastor Donald Ward, President of the Black Caucus of the Evergreen Association, expressing apologies for the actions of the Black Caucus. Pastor Ward, in his verbal apologies to the Seattle Medium stated he, the President of the Black Caucus, was unaware of this meeting; he didn’t attend such a meeting; furthermore, he stated he (Pastor Ward) never would have approved of such a meeting and he said it only takes one nay vote to curtail such an action. It was apparent during my phone contact with the Executive Minister of Evergreen Association that she did not want to identify the head of the Black Caucus and it was only at the end of our little chat that she reluctantly said it was Pastor Ward. She asked me not to call him because he was ill and grieving the death of his son, who was killed in Iraq. This tragedy was shared through our media outlets as our prayers and condolences went out and continued to comfort Pastor Ward and his family. So, to all you Black Pastors; Herbert, Robert, Walter, Steve, James, Jim and those that were invited and knew (Kenneth), anyone of you could have STOPPED this before or during this organized Willie Lynch style attempted lynching of the Black Press by the Evergreen Association and its Executive Minister. All of you as trained products of the Black Community are just as guilty as the white Executive Minister in the eyes of the Black people whose hard earned dollars pay your lucrative salaries including huge compensation packages for some of you. According to information obtained by The Medium, some of these pastoral packages represent nearly 15% of our wealthiest Black churches, in some cases unaudited gross income. Just as Willie Lynch advised the slave owners to set examples for disobedient slaves by tying a chain to each leg of the slave and have two horses pull in different directions. The resulting inhumane act witnessed by slaves would establish control via fear for over 400 years. As far as we are concerned, each one of these Black Caucus members, that turned on the Black Press rather than to the Black Press, tried to tie chains around the different legs of the Black Press and attach them to their vehicles while headed in different directions toward the Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches, 409 Third Avenue South, Suite A, Kent WA 98032 in a Willie Lynch style modern day chauffeur, beanie hats and all, with the Executive Minister (“I stayed away because it was their deal and I didn’t want it to appear as if I was looking over their shoulders”) in the rear seat. And none of you can be mistaken for Morgan Freeman, the actor in the movie “Driving Miss Daisy!”It saddens me personally that this Mt Zion mess that should have been handled internally by the Sr. Pastor and the leadership at Mt. Zion has now spilled over into the community… Pitting the church members against each other; pitting the Black Church against the Black Press; families against families; and friends against friends. But perhaps one person said it best when they stated sometimes things have to be broken before it can be fixed. The concerned members through no apparent fault of their own broke the news through their advertorials, and hopefully the Sr. pastor, Deacons, Trustees, and the congregation can fix it. Somewhere the Sr. pastors vision, the member’s reality, and their faith through logic lost its institutional perspective. That perspective includes the loss of the credit union from church properties, a unified church, a live radio broadcast ministry on the only Black-owned radio stations in Washington and Oregon, an age discrimination lawsuit settlement that cost the church thousands of dollars, and most importantly the historical institutional credibility of Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Seattle in the state, the county, the city, and the Black community is sadly to say is in jeopardy.