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In this week’s SojoMail, Sojourners’ Rev. Moya Harris writes that the reversal of power echoes a biblical tradition of reclaiming what was meant for harm and using it for good:
In December 2020, white supremacists marched through Washington, D.C., defacing our church’s Black Lives Matter sign. This wasn’t just vandalism; it was an act of terror, a deliberate attempt to silence a Black church that has long stood for justice. But fear has never had the final word in our tradition. I won’t lie though; we were unsettled. I will never forget when my pastor, Rev. William H. Lamar IV, shared the news with our waiting congregation. We were at the height of the pandemic, before vaccines, navigating an online worship reality with no clear end in sight. My mind flashed to cross burnings in the rural South. I wasn’t surprised, but I was angry — and tired. My pastor stood firm, reminding us that God is still with us. He didn’t flinch when he said, “We will not be silenced.” And we weren’t. We did not cower. We did not retreat. And now, a Black church holds the legal rights to the identity of those who sought to intimidate it.
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