BIO FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_David_Manning

James David Manning (born February 20, 1947)^[1] is chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in New York City. Manning grew up in Red Springs, North Carolina, born to an African American family, and has been at ATLAH since 1981. ATLAH stands for All The Land Anointed Holy, which is Manning's name for Harlem.^[2] His congregation, "ATLAH Worldwide Missionary Church" is the former Bethelite Missionary Baptist Church. The church is also the site of the ATLAH Theological Seminary, which offers classes on preaching and prophecy.^[3]

Manning is fiercely opposed to the gentrification of Harlem^[4] and calls for its residents to boycott its shops, restaurants, doctors, banks and churches.^[5] That action, combined with a general rent strike, would force all property owners out of Harlem, he said, leaving the neighborhood to its rightful inheritors: black people.^[2][6] Manning calls his plan "No Dew, Nor Rain," after Elijah's warning to Ahab, king of Israel, of a coming drought. "When there's no dew, no rain, there's a drought – there's all kinds of suffering," said Manning. The whole of Harlem, he said, is to be a "drought zone."^[5][7]

Manning graduated from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York where he was awarded a Master of Divinity.^[8] Manning also holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from his own ATLAH Theological Seminary, an unaccredited educational institution.^[9]

As a younger man, Manning burgled homes, mostly on Long Island. He spent about three and a half years in prison in New York and Florida for burglary, robbery, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges before his release in 1978. While in prison, he became a devout Christian.^[2]

According to Manning, he attended the Oxford Round Table in 2004.^[10]