A historically black megachurch in Virginia has cut ties with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump became the facility’s new chair.
Alfred Street Baptist Church of Alexandria said in a statement Sunday it will no longer hold its annual Christmas performance at the Kennedy Center.
The church claimed that the center’s new leadership stood against Alfred Street’s “unwavering commission to proclaim and practice the transformative and redemptive love of Jesus, to pursue justice, to promote equality, to embrace the gift of diversity, and to care for all of creation.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
“We are actively exploring other venues where we can continue to share our witness of the birth of Jesus Christ in the excellence and prophetic tradition of the Black Church,” Alfred Street Baptist concluded.
During a worship service at Alfred Street Baptist on Sunday, Senior Pastor Howard-John Wesley added that concerns surrounding those who lost their jobs due to the Trump administration’s cutting of federal employees also factored into the decision.
“We will not take hard-earned black money and invest it in any way,” said Wesley. “We will not sit under that authority of a president who is unemploying our own members.”
Wesley told his congregation that he is “disturbed” and “angered by the movement in this nation to dismantle, disrupt, defund and ultimately destroy a mandate for diversity, equity and inclusion in our land.”
“From the White House to college campuses to corporate offices, we are finding out what the again means in Make America Great Again,” he said. “We are living out the reality of a Project [2025] that is trying to shape America to look a lot like 1955.”
“You have the right to disagree with me,” he said before describing the “dismantling of DEI” initiatives at the government and corporate levels as being connected with “the resurgence of racism and white supremacy.”
Amid reports some federal agencies have paused activities and events related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month and Juneteenth, among other remembrances, Wesley decried any effort to rename Martin Luther King Jr. Day and any push to remove Juneteenth as a federal holiday as “an attack on my blackness,” “evil and ungodly.”
The Kennedy Center traces its origins to legislation signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958, which sought to create a “national cultural center” for the United States. It was named for Kennedy in 1964, shortly after his assassination.
The center describes itself as “a federal facility” and, as a result, “the Federal Government funds the maintenance and upkeep” of the institution. A 36-member bipartisan board normally oversees its operations.
Earlier this month, Trump was elected the new chair of the center after 18 board members appointed by former President Joe Biden had been purged from the leadership by the president, including former Chairman David Rubenstein. Richard Grenell, a Trump ally, was named interim executive director.
Former Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, whose departure was announced last month, released a statement to National Public Radio that she leaves “my position proud of all we accomplished.”
“From the art on our stages to the students we have impacted in classrooms across America, everything we have done at the Kennedy Center has been about uplifting the human spirit in service of strengthening the culture of our great nation,” she stated.
“Much like our democracy itself, artistic expression must be nurtured, fostered, prioritized, and protected. It is not a passive endeavor; indeed, there is no clearer sign of American democracy at work than our artists, the work they produce, and audiences’ unalienable right to actively participate.”
Rutter stated that she believes that the “work of artists doesn’t always make us feel comfortable, but it sheds light on the truth.”
The origins of Alfred Street Baptist date back to Thomas Jefferson’s presidency in 1803 when it split off from Backlist Baptist Church to form the Alexandria Baptist Society, according to its website.
In 1806, black members of the society established the Colored Baptist Society of Alexandria as a “conjoined” church with the Alexandria Baptist Society, which created the first black Baptist church north of Richmond. The congregation grew in size as slaves from President George Washington’s Mount Vernon Plantation joined.
After renting space for 18 years, the Colored Baptist Society purchased its property in 1842. The church describes itself as a “leader among churches” that has “made significant contributions in education, missions, children ministries, and advancement of women.” The church claims to be among the first to ordain women deacons and the first in Virginia to have ordained an African American woman minister in 1980.
Since 2008, the church has been led by its eighth pastor, Wesley. Since then, the church has seen a “surge” in membership and new ministries. According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, the church has approximately 2,800 members.
