Alfred Street Baptist Church of Alexandria, a historic black megachurch, has cut ties with the Kenedy Center after President Trump became the chair of the facility. Senior Pastor Howard-John Wesley said the decision came after Trump decided to fire thousands of federal workers, many of whom attended his church. The church released a statement expressing their dissatisfaction with the president.

“After prayerful consideration, deliberation, and discerning, the Alfred Street Baptist Church, one of the oldest and largest African American Baptist Churches in the nation, has made the difficult decision to cancel hosting its annual Christmas performance at the Kennedy Center,” the Chruch said in a press release. They also took aim at Trump’s DEI policies.

“We believe that the new leadership’s opposition to the Kennedy Center’s honoring across long-standing tradition of honoring artistic expression across all backgrounds is misaligned with our unwavering commission to proclaim and practice the transformative and redemptive love of Jesus,” they explained, “to pursue justice, to promote equality, to embrace the gift of diversity, and to care for all of creation.”

“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,” the release concluded. The Christian Post reported that Senior Pastor Howard-John Wesley explained his reasoning in a recent sermon. “We are living out the reality of a Project [2025] that is trying to shape America to look a lot like 1955,” he preacher.

“We will not take hard-earned black money and invest it in any way,” said the pastor. “We will not sit under that authority of a president who is unemploying our own members. …From the White House to college campuses to corporate offices, we are finding out what the again means in Make America Great Again,” he added. The pastor said he was ‘disturbed’ by the path the nation is taking.

Wesley explained that he was”angered by the movement in this nation to dismantle, disrupt, defund and ultimately destroy a mandate for diversity, equity and inclusion in our land.” “You have the right to disagree with me,” he began before describing the “dismantling of DEI” initiatives at the government and corporate levels as being connected with “the resurgence of racism and white supremacy.”

He said these efforts were “an attack on my blackness,” and “evil and ungodly.” Wesley is not the only pastor to preach on DEI. Debleaire Snell went on a massive rant where he made the bizarre argument that Christians need to emulate the ancient Babylonian empire. The pastor argued that Babylon was a successful empire because it was diverse.

“Do you realize that for all of Nebuchadnezzar’s eccentricities, he had one good civil practice,” he said, preaching from the book of Daniel. The Babylonian rulers ‘eccentricities’ included throwing Jews into a furnace and a mental break where ” he was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox.” However, the pastor contends, “What made Babylon stand out was they instituted a Diversity Equity and Inclusion program.”

“So what Babylon did was [from] every captured nation, they would take individuals from that group, and they would train them in the science and literature of Babylon and put them to work in the king’s service,” he went on. He argued that, ” any kingdom that has a homogenous cabinet is going to have a lid on its prosperity…the only way to get a 360-degree view of wisdom is to have people from every nation represented in the leadership of government.”

He applied this principle to modern politics. “If America can learn something from Babylon…we’ve got to be willing to let everybody have a seat at the table. …what set Babylon apart is they literally created space for everyone to bring their diverse perspectives and gifts to employ them in the use of the kingdom,” the woke pastor said.