Pastor Jamal Bryant condemned the National Baptist Convention Board for taking a $300,000 donation from Target. Over the weekend, Bryant, who is the preacher at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, had a transparent conversation with his congregation. Bryant addressed the National Baptist Convention board members during his Sunday morning sermon regarding a behind-the-scenes move they recently made with Target amid the ongoing boycott.
Why is Jamal Bryant criticizing his own church?
The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church’s Instagram page posted a snippet of Bryant discussing the newly formed partnership between Target and the National Baptist Convention in effort to help regain the trust of Black consumers. The caption read: “The Baptist Convention might have it twisted. The only way we’re going to win this is together. Sit down. Listen. Unite. If you’re not standing in truth, you’re just standing in the way. ‘Something’s Gotta Break’ is streaming now on all platforms.”
During the teaching, Bryant revealed that he reached out to the National Baptist Convention, warning them that he would blast them on a grand scale for being one of the few church groups who accepted a $300,000 donation from Target.
“I called the president of the National Baptist Convention. I said, ‘Rev, we can’t go out like that. We are selling ourselves short.’ He said, ‘Jamal, give me a couple of days. Let me get the board together.’ I said, ‘Bruh, you can get your board together, but Sunday morning I’m going to the mic and I got to say something. And you’ve got to give me something to work with,” Bryant said during Sunday’s service.”
Bryant then said that he told the president that he had “one week” to send a written letter that the board “stands with the boycott, stands with the oppressed, stands with the marginalized, stands with the nameless and faceless people who are on the frontline.”
Bryant then claimed that the organization’s leaders only received a $75,000 cut of the money: “$75,000 Baptist Convention? I’ll write you a check. You can’t sell yourself out for $75,000. Something has got to break!”
Jamal Bryant accuses Target of trying to sabotage the ongoing boycott
As the audience erupted in agreement, clapping and shouting, he concluded his message by alleging that Target had been trying to undermine him.
“Over the last couple of weeks, Target had been playing in my face,” Bryant said. “Been hiring internet influencers to go online—rappers and artists and athletes to play and broadcast outside of Target and in Target, thinking we ain’t going to say nothing.”
“But you ain’t got to talk directly to me,” he continued. “All you got to do is watch the rerun of The Color Purple. Until you do right by me, nothing you do is going to work.”
Roland Martin also slams the National Baptist Convention’s ‘betrayal’
Journalist Roland Martin also criticized the National Baptist Convention for accepting funds from Target in a series of tweets.
“$17 BILLION in profit. $2 BILLION promised to Black businesses. Target’s offer to Black church leaders? $300,000 — split 3 ways. That breaks down to $322 per church,” he wrote in the initial tweet in the thread. “They called it ‘partnership.’ Roland Martin called it what it is. Watch the breakdown: https://vist.ly/3n7prf4.”
Martin also explained why this was a poor decision: “This is a betrayal! The Black church has moral weight — but Target tried to convert it into PR cover. We need economic warriors, not corporate proxies,” he said.
Although Bryant led the charge alongside Rev. Al Sharpton in calling the Black community to unite for a boycott of Target for its rollback on DEI initiatives earlier this year, the company excluded him from a meeting that included Sharpton and a few others. Despite hopes for a positive outcome of Target’s meeting, the discussion didn’t lead to an end to the boycott.
