Chaos At Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church........

When one sits back and analyzes the conditions at Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion church, 65 Lake Street, White Plains, NY, you are forced to wonder about the state of mind of its members. Are they so beaten down and in a state of denial or are they simply not able to think rationally any longer. I believe that there is a condition that the members suffer from that is akin to being a slave for so long that you become an emotional slave; you can't think independently any longer and you actually sympathize with the slave master. There actually is a feeling that the slavemaster is a good person and is only looking out for the slaves' best interest. The truth of the matter is the slavemaster is only looking out for his own best interests. I believe that the Mt. Hope members; to a large extent feel pity for the pastor (Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox) because he is a truly pathetic individual. Any minister that can drive a more-than-self-sufficient community pillar of a church, which Mt. Hope was when he arrived in August of 1992, into the ground and make it a house of shame as oppossed to a house of worship is a sorry human being. Mt. Hope Church had approximately 425 members when Rev. Maddox arrived and each year the membership has declined to the point where there are approximately 75 - 90 semi-active members currently. Instead of sitting back and analyzing what he is doing wrong, he has consistently taken the view that it's the members fault why there are not more members there. His only solution is to make heavy-handed appeals to the few members to dig deeper in their pockets and make pledges & etc to try and make up for the financial shortfalls that everyday dogs the church. Officers of the church who don't pledge hefty sums of money in addition to their tithes & offerings are removed from the particular boards, such as the Trustee Board. Basic things like retail space property taxes remain unpaid, utility bills go unpaid and there is a monthly struggle to pay the mortgage. Meanwhile a portion (very vocal) of the members still support this destructive situation and the pastor. Sometimes I think it goes back to the old times when people were not very educated and they automatically thought that the pastor was always right about everything. They don't realize that Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church is dying a slow and extremely painful death; everything is over except the funeral!

On last evening (Tuesday June 12, 2007) there was a church meeting held to evaluate a major project that is being proposed. I was in attendance and listened to the presentation by the applicable parties. After the presentation, the presenters opened up the meeting for questions and several members asked their questions. After they were finished, I raised my hand and was recognized to put forth my question. At that point Pastor Maddox interrupted and said I was not eligible to ask questions, that I had been silenced and that I wasn't a member "in good standing". I said I didn't understand that because I had met the conditions of any other member of the church; I have paid all of my General Claims & District Quarterly assessments, which according to the A.M.E. Zion Discipline gives me the right to have a voice in churh matters. In addition, I have paid all Women's Day, Men's Day & Church Anniversary assessments plus other organization dues and made some offerings. How would I not be a member with rights to speak? Well it all comes down to a personal matter: I wrote a letter to the Presiding Elder - Cynthia Willis-Stewart in June of 2004 when the evidence of Mt. Hope Church's failure was there for all to see. I asked the Presiding Elder to reccomend to the Bishop that Pastor Maddox not be returned to Mt. Hope Church during the Annual Conference that was being held during the following week. I gave her information regarding wrong-doing and just basic incompetence on the part of the Pastor. I told her that if Pastor Maddox was returned that Mt. Hope would surely end up a failed church. Given the current situation, I rest my case. Well Pastor Maddox suspended me from The Trustee Board of the church and has remained punitive, vindictive and vicious in his behavior ever since. I stand by what I said and did because everything was true and most of the members knew that to be the case, except that they were afraid to stand up and say so. I neglected to mention that Pastor Maddox also demanded that I leave the meeting, I stated emphatically that I would not and he tried to demand that members of the Trustee Board escort me out of the church. Luckily, the trustees present had better sense than the "tyrant" (Pastor Maddox) and refused to move. There was an outcry also from most of the members for the Pastor to leave the situation alone and go on with the meeting.

So this is the expalnation for him trying to silence me, while acting in a very un-religious manner at most times. I wonder if this is what our Lord & Savior would want from "a man of the cloth". Everything that I know says otherwise and he will surely be made to pay for such hypocritical behaviour. No wonder most of the members have left the church and such a heavy financial burden has been placed on the few that remain. If you believe that i'm not being truthful, simply come and visit our "big empty church" on any Sunday at 10:15 a.m. and see for yourself. It might be more powerful if you were to attend any first Sunday.

This is as much as I have to say at this time; stay tuned for other updates as they occur.