Black church leaders aren’t taking the current surge in white supremacist exercise within the metropolis mendacity down.
“We choose proactivity instead of reactiveness. And so as we began the work today, we galvanized to address these issues,” the Rev. Willie Bodrick II, the senior pastor of Roxbury’s Twelfth Baptist Church, mentioned within the parking zone of his church following a Wednesday assembly of clergy inside.
“This is just the beginning,” he continued, “the table is open for all of us to join hands and stand firm against white supremacy, and stand firm against violence and to put forward the gospel of peace.”
The assembly on the church was an preliminary effort to align the Boston religion neighborhood in efforts to denounce racism and different hatred. This first assembly noticed not solely clergy from black protestant denominations, but in addition clergy from different faiths and races, together with Father Jack Ahern of St. Gregory Parish in Dorchester.
“Any time any group is assaulted, it’s a responsibility for all of the community,” Ahern instructed the Herald about why he felt it was essential to attend the assembly.
In specific, Brodrick denounced two metropolis appearances by white supremacists that bookended July.
On July 2, roughly 100 members of the group Patriot Front confirmed up unannounced and marched by way of the town with flags that included a identified fascist image.
On July 23, members of the group the Nationalist Social Club, or NSC-131, protested exterior a drag queen story hour occasion at Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain. Three folks had been arrested. Charges towards two counter-protesters had been dropped.
Those adopted earlier occasions this yr together with when one other group protested exterior Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in late January and NSC-131 held “Keep Boston Irish” banners on the St. Patrick’s Day parade in March.
The clergy additionally spoke forward of the assembly with Mayor Michelle Wu.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden — himself a deacon at Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan — additionally attended and mentioned that “we cannot meet the horror and hatred of these groups in-kind … if we do so, we will give them exactly what they want.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”