The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Stands With Wendell Griffen
By Earl B. Mason, Sr.
I am Rev. Dr. Earl B. Mason, Sr., Pastor of the Bible-Based Fellowship Church of Temple Terrace, Tampa, FL, and Trustee of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. I am here officially representing the Board of Trustees of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, an African American interdenominational network of clergy, congregations and lay leaders who are committed to be a voice for justice and freedom in this nation and the world. I bring greetings and affirmations from our chair, Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. and our General Secretary, Dr. Iva E. Carruthers. I also recognize the presence here of my fellow trustee, Rev. Dr. Valarie Bridgeman, Interim Dean of Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Most especially, the Proctor Conference want to say to our fellow trustee, the Honorable Rev. Wendell Griffen, that we encircle you, your family and congregation with our prayers and full support. We come to be with you and bear public witness that the Proctor Conference will not be silent in the face of blatant disregard of first amendment rights of religious freedom. As African American Christians, we know and appreciate, all too well, the value and cost of religious freedom. Our foreparents were brought to this nation in chains in its nascent period of formulating its principles of democracy. Early laws of this nation forbade religious education of the enslaved. Yet, risking death and beatings, our foreparents would steal away to the brush harbors, to faithfully exercise religious freedom.
Our brother’s acts of pastoral and liturgical leadership during one of the most significant seasons of Christianity are borne in his understanding of what it means to be Christian and Black in this nation. His acts for which he is now being sanctioned by some are at the intersection of religious expression and America’s racial history. Thus, we will also not be silent in the face of unprecedented efforts to sanction one who has stood for equal protection under the law, contesting systemic racial injustices.
We thank our brothers and sisters of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas who organized this righteous public stand in support of our beloved brother, The Honorable Rev. Wendell Griffen. Thank you.
Rev. Dr. Earl B. Mason, Sr. can be reached at ebmlexus1@mac.com (813)376-6004.
