The National Baptist Convention USA ended its annual summer meeting two weeks ago and, low and behold, the Rev. Henry Lyons remained as the convention's president.
Lyons, it should be remembered, faces Florida and federal indictments for theft and racketeering. He is also, by his own admission, an adulterer.
And this is the guy the convention continues to want to lead it and its 8 million members? His presence in a leadership role, much less the top role, impugns the integrity and moral authority of the entire National Baptist Convention.
Many at the Baptist gathering in Kansas City justified their inaction at getting rid of Lyons by stating that convention by-laws would not allow his ouster this year, one year before the end of his five-year term. But that argument is so morally and spiritually bankrupt that it barely merits a response. The obvious solution would have been to change the by-laws to depose someone who, by Biblical standards, is unfit.
The Bible says God forgives any sin if the sinner asks and repents. But it also says that no sin goes unpunished. We do not doubt that Lyons has asked for forgiveness and repents. But by remaining convention president after admitting adultery, he seeks to go unpunished for that sin.
As we stated more than a year ago, Lyons should step down from the pulpit, once again sit in the pews, and allow someone who is not shrouded by suspicion to assume leadership of the National Baptist Convention.
That is a level or moral leadership which Lyons has failed to display since this crisis began in July 1997.
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