Pastor-led protest focuses on BET
WASHINGTON — A Baptist pastor has begun a series of protests, demanding that media outlets and corporations stop portraying blacks in demeaning and offensive ways. The first demonstration was at the home of Black Entertainment Television’s chief executive.
More than 500 people demonstrated peacefully Sept. 15, outside the home of Debra Lee in her quiet, stately neighborhood. They held signs and wore shirts that said “Enough is Enough” — the name of the campaign. Several security guards blocked gates near the home.
Rev. Delman L. Coates of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md., led the protest.
The group is calling on corporations to divest from programming and popular culture that sexually objectifies black women and portrays black men as “pimps” and “gangsters.” Protesters said they plan to return every weekend until Lee addresses their complaints.
Members of the National Organization for Women and the head of the National Congress of Black Women joined the protest.
Lee was not home during the nearly two-hour demonstration. She said she would have met with the group if they had brought their protest to BET’s corporate headquarters in northeast Washington.
BET was founded in Washington 27 years ago by businessman Robert Johnson and is now owned by Viacom Inc. It has recently been criticized for such programs as “Hot Ghetto Mess,” which had its name changed to “We Got to Do Better” in response to complaints.
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China church leader freed from prison
BEIJING — A leader of China’s underground Protestant church has been released from a 3-year prison term for distributing Bibles and other religious literature without a business license, an overseas monitoring group said.
Pastor Cai Zhuohua returned to his Beijing home in good physical and mental condition, the China Aid Association said in a statement.
The association, based in Midland, Texas, said Cai had been told not to speak about his prison experience and to report to police once a month.
Cai’s pretrial detention appeared to have been counted toward his sentence. He had been detained about 14 months before he was convicted in November 2005.
Cai had been sentenced for “illegal business practices” after police searched a warehouse managed by Cai and found more than 200,000 pieces of Christian literature, including Bibles.
China’s government-controlled church maintains a monopoly on the printing and distribution of religious literature and other church materials.
The Chinese government only allows worship in churches run by state-monitored religious associations.
Cai’s lawyers said he gave away the religious materials for free and denied he was running a business.
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Neighbors wary of Habitat homes
YANKTON, S.D. — Many homeowners in a neighborhood west of Yankton fear that the low-income houses being built near them by the Christian ministry Habitat for Humanity could hurt property values.
The group uses volunteers to build homes for people who otherwise can’t afford them, and planned to build 11 homes in the Riverside Acres neighborhood.
“One thing we want to stress is, we are not against Habitat for Humanity. It is a good organization,” said Doug Urness, who lives in the area. “However, when you put 11 homes in a community, is it going to affect the community? We think it will.”
Habitat for Humanity in Yankton County got a good deal on the 11 lots, said John Jacobson, executive director of the organization. Jacobson said Habitat clients are carefully screened, and homes that are built are designed to fit into their respective neighborhoods.
“I wouldn’t want my property value to drop because of something my neighbor is doing, either,” he said. “We always take into account whether the houses are going to fit into the neighborhood and whether or not the families are going to fit into the neighborhood.”
