Resignation June 22, 2011

June 22, 2011

Dear Rev. Phelps, Clergy, Church Council, Membership Department, and fellow Congregants of the Riverside Church,

I began attending Riverside during Bill Coffin’s tenure. I joined as a member because Riverside was the only institution that I believed lived what she preached.

Over the past few years, I have witnessed fundamental and overwhelming changes in this institution, which I have loved dearly for decades, including:

· ravaging of her liturgical form and tradition
· continued attacks and erosion of her luminary music tradition
· wholesale change in direction of her theological position, which now focuses primarily on extolling incarcerated African American men, while demeaning the millions of mostly African American people (their fathers, mothers, siblings, girl-friends, wives, children, family members, and neighbors) who have suffered horribly as the very real victims of the crimes for which they were incarcerated; and the characterizing all people of Caucasian descent as racist
· destruction of all forms of actual ministry, and particular attacks on social justice ministry
· want of pastoral care
· pilfering of the endowment and corporate spending that makes less than a dozen people among the richest humans on the planet, while billions of men, women, and children suffer in Morningside Heights, Harlem, and around the world

After long reflection and prayer, I realize that I can no longer in good conscience associate my name with the Riverside Church as a member because all of the above practices are antithetical to my beliefs and to my faith. Thus, please remove me from the church membership rolls, and from your membership tally.

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right."
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Sincerely,

Jennifer Hoult, Esq.

Membership number 18683