A local pastor in Kansas unequivocally denounced white supremacists on Sunday, without drawing a moral equivalency to other groups, stunning his entire congregation.
Michael Stevens, a parishioner, was one of the most affected. "He just stood there and said 'White supremacists are evil and I condemn them and so should any other fellow Christian'. And that was that. He didn't make any ambiguous statement as I'm used to in other churches. He didn't allow me to infer that he could have been talking about Black Lives Matter. I was stunned."
Mary Johnson doesn't think she'll be going back. "I've been coming to this church for 15 years and have never been so offended. He specifically condemned white supremacists. What about black supremacists? Or brown ones? Unbelievable."
The young pastor is bracing for a mass exodus from his most conservative members.
"The church down the road is nicer anyway," Johnson added. "I'm not confronted by the realities of this world and I can pretend that racism doesn't exist. It's a safe space, just like churches should be."
Saturday, August 19, 2017
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