Baptist Group Rejects Lyons As President

The leaders of the National Baptist Convention USA offered prayers but not a second term to Rev. Henry J. Lyons, the disgraced former president of the country's largest African American Baptist denomination, who lost a bid Thursday to get his old job back.

After being convicted in 1999 of swindling $5.2 m illion and also pleading guilty to federal tax charges, the 67-year-old Tampa pastor campaigned as a repented soul to lead an organization that claims 7.5 million members. His fall from power began after his wife set a fire at a home he co-owned with another woman.

But during 12 hours of voting, delegates at the National Baptist Convention in Memphis showed that spiritual forgiveness and leadership are two different things. They elected the Rev. Julius Scruggs of Huntsville, Ala., who has been the convention's vice president for the past five years.

Scruggs defeated Lyons by a margin of more than 4 to 1, receiving 4,086 votes to Lyons's 924, Lavonia Washington, spokeswoman for the convention, said Thursday. Scruggs is to address the group Friday.

"It is time to move forward. We don't have time to move backwards," said the Rev. Henry Gaston, pastor of Johnson Memorial Baptist Church in Southeast Washington. Gaston, who is also president of the Missionary Baptist Ministers Conference of DC and Vicinity, said he voted for Scruggs because "there are too many issues that we need to focus on."

On Wednesday, Lyons flew from Memphis to the District, where his attorneys asked a D.C. Superior Court judge to delay the election on the grounds that church leaders amended the national bylaws and stacked the deck against his reelection. Judge Jeanette Clark denied the request.

The Rev. James Colman, pastor of the All Nations Baptist Church in Northeast, said the National Baptist Convention needs to focus on issues rather than personalities.

"It is not about who is the leader. . . . All of us need to become leaders in our communities to deal with issues like poverty, unemployment and incarceration," Colman said. "The only people who can save us is us."