This Sunday, while attending Sunday service this weekend, my pastor spoke about a minister who is imprisoned in Detroit for preaching the word.
I knew there had to be more to the story than that, so when I got home I Googled the pastor’s name. I learned that Rev. Edward Pinkney, pastor of Bethel Christian Restoration Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan, was arrested and charged with three counts of voter fraud in a local election.
Rev. Pinkney stood up to corporate giant Whirlpool and helped to defeat the city commissioner who was financially backed by Whirlpool in the election. Whirlpool hoped their city commissioner would pave the way for them to tear down housing for the poor and elderly and replace those dwellings with luxury lake front homes for the wealthy.
When Whirlpool’s candidate lost, the local sheriff supposedly found people to admit they were paid $5 each by the Rev. Pinkney to vote in the tight race.
In 2007, the Reverend was convicted of voter fraud and given probation. But Rev. Pinkney languishes in prison today because he tested the limits of freedom of speech in an article in a Chicago newspaper. He wrote that the judge would “be punished by God with curses, fever and extreme burning unless he changed his ways.”
A different Detroit judge decided that the “threat” violated Rev. Pinkney’s probation and sentenced him to 3 to 10 years in prison.
The ACLU has asked the state appeals court to release the Rev. Edward Pinkney on bail while he appeals a probation violation. Lawyers say his free-speech rights were trampled in Berrien County. [LINK]
So just to sum it up: a man of the cloth, who helped the poor, sits in jail for preaching, while a racist cop who stood over a defenseless black man and shot him in the back is free on bond. Got it?
If you think this is unjust and you would like to donate to the Rev. Pinkney’s defense fund, send checks to:
BANCO
1940 UNION
BENTON HARBOR, MI 49022
