News Coverage of Press Conference on December 9th, 2020:
We have partnered with BIC to promote a racism pledge, check it out here
Statement of Christ Congregational Church, Brockton, MA
in Response to a Racist Verbal Assault on One of Our Members
Official Church Statement:
December 7, 2020
On November 7 a member of our church, Christ Congregational Church in Brockton, was working in our front yard along Pleasant Street when a passing vehicle slowed and the driver stuck his head out his window. Pointing to our large “Black Lives Matter” sign, the passerby verbally assaulted our member with hate-filled threats: “I hope you [f-ing] die, you [n-word]-lover. You’re going to die you [f-ing] [n-word]-lover.”
The previous Sunday we arrived for our outdoor church service to find a political candidate placard staked in our lawn so that it covered the “Black Lives Matter” sign.
Both incidents come on the heels of our identifying racial justice last winter as a mission priority of our congregation in the coming years; issuing a public statement last spring recognizing our own complicity in institutional racism and supporting the protests provoked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis; and holding an anti-racism prayer vigil in front of our building.
The verbal attack last month was something no one should ever have to experience. The person assaulted, who is white, was shaken by the intensity and depth of the hatred the driver expressed. It also stirs that member and the rest of us, in particular those who are white, to be ever conscious that this one incident is just a glimpse of what our members of color and our sisters and brothers of color in Greater Brockton and throughout our nation experience on a regular basis, often with more violence and destruction. We are awakened to the fact that racist hate is not something that only exists in some other place and time; we recognize that it exists right here and now in our own community, and that it can be just as destructive as it ever has been.
Here at Christ Congregational Church we stand with our sisters and brothers of color everywhere in condemning and combatting racism in all the ways it devalues Black and Brown lives—including pervasive institutional racism, entrenched white privilege, and bigoted white supremacy. Genesis 1:27 says that the whole of humanity is created in God’s image; could it not then be clearer that Black and Brown lives matter? With our community partners, such as the Brockton Interfaith Community and other communities of faith, we are committed to working for a more just and equitable future –a future where racism and the power of white supremacy has been eradicated.
Today, and every day going forward, we at Christ Congregational Church stand with our brothers and sisters of color throughout Greater Brockton and throughout the world to proclaim that Black and Brown Lives Matter, that hatred and bigotry have no home here, and that we will not silently hide behind the privilege of our white members any longer. Our sign will remain, and our work in confronting racial injustice will continue.
Approved by the Church Council
December 7, 2020
