(Religious News Service) —The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) centered its annual meeting on get-out-the-vote efforts and celebrated Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president.
“We need everyone to register,” PNBC President David Peoples urged during a news conference on Wednesday (Aug. 7), emphasizing the importance of members encouraging “our friends and our frenemies and our entire family to vote.”
Around 2,500 attendees gathered in New Orleans for the four-day session of the historic Black denomination, known as the church home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Peoples clarified, “We are not political, but we are prophetic,” while also praising Harris and criticizing former President Donald Trump, who is running against her. He drew parallels between Harris and the biblical Queen Esther, while questioning Trump’s understanding of biracial families, despite his own mixed heritage.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, also spoke, critiquing Trump without directly naming him. During a session honoring the late preacher Gardner C. Taylor, Warnock condemned Trump’s history of racism and called for collective action to prevent his return to the Oval Office.
The PNBC is collaborating with the AFL-CIO on voter mobilization efforts, targeting four battleground states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The Rev. Darryl Gray, PNBC’s director general for social justice, emphasized their commitment to protecting the right to vote and resisting ultra-conservative and white Christian nationalist rhetoric.
Throughout the meeting, PNBC leaders and speakers addressed a wide range of issues, including mass incarceration, poverty, and international conflicts. Peoples called for peace in the Middle East and African countries, while the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III criticized Project 2025, describing it as a neofascist threat to democracy rooted in white supremacy.
The Rev. Jacqueline Thompson, second vice president of the PNBC, shared her concerns about Project 2025 as she prepares to vote, noting the particular challenges faced by Black women in the nation. She highlighted how the stakes in this election feel existential, driving her and others to be vocal and active in addressing the issues affecting their communities.
