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Greetings Proctor Family, 

We routinely receive mail at New Millennium Church with invitations to attend conferences, meetings, and so forth. I usually discard it. You never get messages from me about it. 

I’m making an exception this time. 

I received an invitation to attend “Pastors’ Meetings” on November 11, 2021, 10:30 am at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Roosevelt and Main, or at 6:00 pm at His Way Ministries, 6724 W. 32d Street. The purpose of the “Pastors’ Meetings” is “to consider a possible future Central Arkansas Will Graham Celebration of Hope.” 

The invitation reads: 

“Arkansas pastors, church staff members, and community leaders are invited to meet with members of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association team at either of two meetings on November 11, 2021. The purpose of these meetings is to share information about a Will Graham Celebration of Hope and to make a decision about whether or not to move forward with an invitation to Will Graham and the Billy Graham team to come to Central Arkansas.” 

I’m sending this message to notify you that I will not attend either meeting, that I will not encourage any other person associated with New Millennium Church to do so, and to explain why I refuse to be associated with any effort to invite Will Graham and the Billy Graham team to come to Central Arkansas. 

The website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has a “what we believe” folder. Here is a link to it. https://www.billygraham.ca/about/what-we-believe/ 

New Millennium Church was organized in 2009 by prophetic-spirited and activist followers of Jesus. We are unapologetically inclusive, affirming, and embracing of all persons, including our LGBTQAI siblings. As pastor of New Millennium, I have been honored to officiate the marriage of several same-gender-loving couples. 

New Millennium is proudly affiliated with the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc., a predominantly Black inter-denominational network of Jesus followers and other faith leaders who believe that same-gender marriages are as sacred as heterosexual marriages, that LGBTQIA children of God are entitled to equality, and that the gospel of Jesus does not uphold bigotry against people based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or other grounds. I serve as a trustee of the Proctor Conference. 

New Millennium, to my knowledge, has been the only Black Baptist congregation in Arkansas affiliated with the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB). 

I have been blessed by fellowship with the Alliance of Baptists. The Alliance has been welcoming and affirming for years. 

I do not agree with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stance towards LGBTQIA children of God. I refuse to lend my presence to any group that rejects the equality of our LGBTQIA siblings. 

The November 11 meetings will be [were] held in neighborhoods where Black people and Black churches are a majority. I view the meetings as part of the age-old scheme by white evangelical Christians to keep Black followers of Jesus “colonized” by the slaveholder religion Billy Graham preached. Billy Graham rejected pleas from Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor to support the War on Poverty but was proud to support the War in Vietnam. Sixty years later, his grandson, Will Graham, appears to be following in those footsteps and those of Franklin Graham, his father, who proudly supported Donald Trump despite Trump’s bigotry against people of color, people who are LGBTQIA, people who are Muslim, and people who live with their backs against the wall for other reasons. 

I do not want to be associated in any way with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I do not want to have New Millennium Church associated with it. 

Now you know my position. Now I will discard the invitation. 

Hon. Rev. Wendell Griffen 

Trustee, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc. 

he/him/his 

Author, The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, 2017)