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“If another banner is defaced, we will have full support of our congregation to continue hanging them.” “When the banner was defaced, I felt sad that there are people in our community who feel the need to make publicly clear that some lives matter more than others,” Stewart said.
Stewart, a co-pastor of the church, and it will continue to hang outside the building regardless of the community’s opinion. Since then, the sign was defaced to read, “Black Lives Matter – So Support Cops.” The church took that banner down, but has a replacement on the way, says the Rev. Greenpoint Reformed Church hung its first “Black Lives Matter” banner after a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., decided not to indict the officer who shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown, and hung a more permanent version of the banner in early December following the death of Eric Garner at the hands of a white officer in New York City. All we want is for those officers to be held accountable and for the good cops to stop covering for them.” But a tiny number of cops turn out to be bad, violent or racist. “There are tens of thousands of good police officers who get up every day and risk their lives protecting and serving the public, and we honor and value that. Gary Brinn, pastor of Sayville Congregational. “Political extremists have hijacked this and reframed the narrative so that any criticism of any cop at any time is anti-cop, that all cops are good cops and all shoots are good shoots – that is a false narrative,” said the Rev. Despite the reaction, the church’s deacons unanimously voted to keep the banner up, citing the congregation’s roots in social justice and the desire to start a dialogue about what the sign really means to them. Sayville Congregational hung its banner after Christmas and almost immediately started receiving hateful voicemails in the church office and hostile messages on its Facebook page accusing the church of not supporting the police. “You can be for something and not against something else, but people don’t understand that.” “Just because we are saying black lives matter doesn’t mean all lives don’t matter,” said Gail Keiser, moderator and president of Sayville Congregational. The leadership in both churches say that couldn’t be further from the truth, but stand by their decision – and their right – to declare their support for all people in the aftermath of racially-charged incidents involving African Americans and white police officers. That is what two New York congregations have experienced since publicly declaring that “Black Lives Matter.” Banners bearing the bold proclamation hang outside of Sayville Congregational UCC near Long Island and Greenpoint Reformed Church in Brooklyn, and have sparked unexpected controversy among some people in those communities who think the churches are anti-police.
Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo.“The sign was meant to say, you know, look, do you know what you’re doing here? Do you realize this is hateful, it’s harmful, it’s hurtful?” Banguolo said.
WABC adds: ‘A defense attorney said in court that it was a prank and nothing more, but prosecutors say Witt made an oral admission to police that he “didn’t want to see a gay flag on a church.” He also left an American flag and a POW flag that are also at the scene. Witt was arrested on suspicion of six counts of petit larceny as a hate crime and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at the First District Court in Central Islip, on New York’s Long Island, police said.” Tuesday at his home in Sayville, New York, less than four blocks from the Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. 20 and one other date.ĪBC News reports: “The suspected thief, Ronald Tyler Witt, was arrested around 8:05 p.m. A 21-year-old New York man has been charged with a hate crime for stealing rainbow flags from a Sayville church on July 29, Sept.