Selma Protester Hopes to Draw Attention to Unfair Church Leadership

The protest was a one man mission at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. The man’s hope was not that the deacons choose a new pastor, but that they select their new leader fairly. But church officials say, they played by the book.

Ernest Swift is protesting the church’s hiring of a new pastor, but he is not mad about who the congregation chose. He says he is mad about the selection process. Swift says the process in the Baptist Church is to bring in pastors to preach a sermon, then the board selects two pastors for the congregation to vote on. That, Swift says, is where the board went wrong.

“And they have a voting from just two of those candidates that preached, not just one… As they did,” Swift says. “They just said they wanted James Perkins, and then they just put him there, and the people voted. And all of them that didn’t want to vote for him, they just sat down. They didn’t have nobody to vote.”

Swift was an associate pastor at Ebenezer Baptist until January 15th. He has been removed from his position for allegedly assaulting and threatening the new head pastor. A restraining order has been filed against Swift by the church board.

The church board, however, thinks they did nothing wrong.

“We followed the procedure that was prescribed during our church’s conference,” says Deacon Charles Johnson. “And we held an election that was duly advertised and it was done… Every member was given the opportunity to vote their convictions.”

Swift stands alone now, but says he welcomes anyone who wants to join his protest.

“I don’t know if other peoples would come in the protest, but I accept anybody who wants to protest and believe that Baptist polities as I stated it was the right and correct way, and if they want to stand up for it, they do good to stand up now,” Swift says.

He says he will be protesting every Sunday he can, until a change is made.