The Consumed Baptist House In Place of a Fueling Station …….Where Are We Heading As Baptists?

By: D. Edwin Clarke- Life Member, LBMEC

I’m once again perturbed to pen this brief on another painstaking violation of our rights as Baptists. Since the controversial 2012 Yekepa Election of Dr. Olu Menjay, the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention continues to remain in a state of confusion without any trace of solution. Crisis continues to show its ugly tentacles in the LBMEC because reconciliation is yet to take its root amongst brethren of Christ. From the very inception of this leadership, there have been gross defilements of the people’s right and the complete annulment of its organic law. All of these are happening because someone somewhere wants to exercise clout that does not belong to him. In 2014, I wrote a memoir to all Baptists at the 100th Annual Session of the Convention held at Washington Chapel on Ricks Institute. In that article, I highlighted a number of ills that are and continue to pervade the convention without any penitence by the leadership to have them solved. In that brief, I alerted conventioneers about a plan to lease our Baptist Headquarters to a Lebanese for little or nothing. I also brought to their attention plans by the leadership to singlehandedly turn over the Kwendi Project to one of its influential allies. Not only did I raise them, I informed delegates that due to said plan to lease the headquarters, the offices of the Convention were being run at an unknown destination- which later surfaced at the Baptist Seminary after mounting pressure from some of us.Since that touchy article that led to the manhandling of the boy who carries out the distribution by some conventioneers upon the orders of the Leadership-, I’m again bringing to the attention of delegates what was once reported but with a new dimension. I’m of the conviction that we as Baptists are aware of the ongoing demolition of our national headquarters by the Rev. Dr. Olu Menjay leadership without any clear- cut information to the people who own the LBMEC. It was on a sunny afternoon while enroute to Paynesville when I came across bulldozers vandalizing the Baptist House with an inscription “Future Home of NP”. When I saw that, I became concern and wonder as to why the leadership of the convention decided to break down a project that was once given to us by the former first lady of Liberia, Madam Victoria Tolbert, wife of our former President, Dr. William R. Tolbert. What beats my imagination is the decision to breakdown a national headquarters in place of a gas station. What is the rationale behind such a poor decision? Is the leadership telling us that other lands owned by the Convention cannot be used for said purpose? I’m again glad to ask Dr. Menjay and his corp of officers. We have several properties in and across the country which I believed should be used to generate fund for the convention instead of destroying a project where thousands of dollars have been collected over the years. Years in and out to the best of my knowledge, we collect thousands of dollars under the “Baptist House Rally Project”, but up to date the headquarters is yet to be completed.What I expected of this leadership was to continue on what was on hand instead of breaking down an historic and traditional shrine. We have a huge parcel of land at the Baptist Seminary, land in Bomi County, Land at Ricks institute and the Kwendi project in Nimba County, but why the Baptist House. A stone throw from our vandalized headquarters is the Seventh Day Adventist Headquarters-see what

they are doing, but as for us we took the contrary that has no positive bearing on us as Baptists. The Baptist Headquarters is the second project being destroyed; the first was the Baptist Compound in Congo Town. Up to date we are yet to get first-hand information on the status of said bad and pitiable decision.My fellow Baptists, it is time that we speak true to power. It is no more time for deceit and hypocrisy but it’s time to engage the status quo. No matter how close you are to the power that be, we must muster the courage to correct the wrong that is eating up the convention. We cannot sit supinely and allow our beloved convention to be ruined by a group of self- seeking individuals who want to amass wealth as the expense of us. As Baptists, will we continue to be the least in development? Or are we just deceitful to each other that we had refused to look at our transgressors in the face and tell them the truth? Some might argue that their decision to break down the headquarter is to fund and carry out missionary activities, but I beg to disagree. I differed because each church under the LBMEC pays a yearly assessment of 10% of its annual budget to support the operations and missionary activities of the convention.Secondly, let me again raise another important issue that we knowingly know but intentionally refused to target. It has to do with the running of Ricks Institute. This boarding school is owned by the LBMEC, but up to date, according to my knowledge, we are yet to receive any progress report on the operations of the school for the past 10 years. Our President, Rev. Dr. Olu Menjay both serves as CEO/Principal of the school and at the same time President of the Convention. Is it not conflict of interest? He’s both the referee and the player- who reporting to who and who is accountable to who. Are we not aware of this bad governance? We thank Dr. Menjay for his effort to transform the school, especially in the eyes of his international partners, but we must also be encouraged to engage him positively when it comes to the running of the school. This institute is another property that should be generating funds for the Convention, but we are just not engaging our leaders. They are accountable to us and as such we must exert that emotional fortitude to compel them to live up to our demands and aspirations.I, D. Edwin Clarke, Life Member of the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention cannot do all, it is incumbent upon us, especially the rational ones in the Convention to engage the status quo to save our convention from the hands of self- interest individuals.