TACOMA, Wash. – The Rev. Dr. Leslie Braxton, pastor of the New Beginnings Christian Fellowship in Renton, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. at University of Puget Sound. The free public event will start at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18 in Kilworth Memorial Chapel.

Braxton will speak on topics drawing from the life and legacy of Dr. King, in an evening including gospel music and the presentation of the university’s second annual Keep Living the Dream awards. The awards are given by the Division of Student Affairs to three members of the community who have been nominated by their peers for their efforts to work towards Dr. King’s vision for a just and inclusive society.

Braxton has received considerable local recognition for his hard-hitting speeches from the pulpit and efforts to prod the consciences of those in his congregation. While at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, he instituted outreach programs, stewardship training, and Christian education and discipleship training. His work to engage his congregation in the community continues at New Beginnings.

In an interview with The Seattle Times, Braxton said he hoped to meld church and state in order to solve social problems: "Martin Luther King said what I believe. 'Any religion that pretends to be concerned about the souls of men but is not concerned about the slums that damn them, not concerned about the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.'"

Braxton received a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Puget Sound in 1983. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1987 and a Doctor of Ministry degree in the study of Afri-Centric Bible Hermeneutics from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 1996.

For directions and a map of the campus: pugetsound.edu/directions

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