By Bob Allen
An African-American Baptist leader says young people rioting in Baltimore are sacrificing the moral high ground of nonviolent protest advocated by Martin Luther King.
“Anger over the yet unexplained death of Freddie Gray is one thing, but to respond through the violence which has engulfed the city is another matter,” Progressive National Baptist Convention President James Perkins said in a statement on Facebook. “The rioting, looting and burning does not accomplish anything.”
Perkins, pastor of Greater Christ Baptist Church in Detroit, said anger over the April 19 death of the 25-year-old African-American man from spinal injuries suffered in police custody is understandable. While police brutality against peaceful protestors in the civil rights movement sparked conversation about the need for change, he said, that message is lost when protest turns violent.
“The Progressive National Baptist Convention condemns this violence, but we also condemn the system that consistently ignores the need to engage in urban revitalization and providing jobs that pay a livable wage,” Perkins said. “Until the larger underlying issues are addressed, this frustration will erupt again and again. Let us pray and work to effect true, lasting and positive change.”
Perkins said the challenge for the PNBC, founded by socially conscious young black pastors in the 1960s, is “how do we reach an un-parented and unchurched generation to teach them the history of nonviolent protest as the strategy to create social change?”
He called on all PNBC pastors and churches “to make yourselves available to Baltimore clergy and congregations to provide tangible support as the Holy Spirit directs.”
“I’m also asking that we use this as a moment to teach this current generation about the practice of nonviolent protest as practiced by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his words: ‘Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.’”