Delman L. Coates (born January 13, 1973) is an American

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

minister. He is senior pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church, a

megachurch A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. Most megachurches are Evangelical, although the term denotes a type of organization, not a denomination. A megachurch draws 2 ...

located in Clinton, Maryland, since 2004. Coates is founder of the Our Money Campaign, an economic justice campaign launched in May 2019. He is founder of the Black Church Center for Justice & Equality. Coates is a board member of the National Action Network.

Early life and education

Coates was born on January 13, 1973, in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. He has one sister. He studied Religion at

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

and earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1995, then he studied at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

and earned a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

in 1998. He also studied at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, earned his Master of Philosophy in Religion in 2002 and his Ph.D. in New Testament and Early Christianity in 2006.

Ministry

In 2004, he became senior pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church, a

located in Clinton, Maryland. In 2012, Coates announced his support for same-sex marriage. Following this announcement, less than 10 people left the church for this reason while 1,000 people joined the church during that year, a record number of new members for the church.

Politics

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

member Heather Mizeur named Coates as her running mate in the 2014 race for governor.

Published articles

*"And the Bible Says: Methodological Tyranny of Biblical Fundamentalism and Historical Criticism" in Blow the Trumpet in Zion (2004) * "Towards a Progressive Christian Interpretive Praxis" in The African-American Pulpit (2004) * "Origen of Alexandria" in Union Seminary Quarterly Review (vol. 59:3-4, 2005) Coates wrote an essay titled “The New Abolitionism: Monetary Reform and the Future of Civil Rights” which appears in the book ''Mr. President: Interfaith Perspectives on the Historic Presidency of Barack H. Obama'' (2017).

References

External links

Mt. Ennon Baptist Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Delman 1973 births African-American Baptist ministers National Baptist Convention, USA ministers People from Clinton, Maryland Living people Columbia University alumni Morehouse College alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni American philosophers of religion Baptists from Maryland 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people