Rev. William H. Lamar IV, the pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, has spoken out after vandals destroyed signs and banners on two historic black churches in D.C. on Saturday.
The “Black Lives Matters” signs and banners of the two churches Metropolitan AME Church and Asbury United Methodist Church, were destroyed during raucous pro-Trump rallies.
Video footage appeared to show the people damaging property as affiliates of the Proud Boys, which was designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
On Sunday, Rev. Lamar tweeted, “We have not been distracted by signs, sounds, or fury for nearly two centuries.” The Pastor continued, “We worship. We liberate. We serve.”
According to NPR, Metropolitan AME, which was founded in 1872, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Dignitaries and members of the Black Elite such as Frederick Douglass worshiped there, while Ida B. Wells and Booker T. Washington have appeared there as speakers.
Yesterday in an opinion piece for the Washington Post, entitled “My church will replace our Black Lives Matter sign. Will America replace its racist myth?” Rev Lamar pointed out America’s history of hypocrisy and the “myths of American imperium.”
“The myth of the American imperium is deeply rooted in falsehoods and forgetfulness, in intentional historical amnesia and obfuscation. Liberty was not the founding American impulse; genocide was. The blessing of God did not secure this nation’s prosperity. The forced labor of my ancestors did. The founders were not committed to a republic or a democracy. They were committed to a racialized plutocracy led by propertied White males,” the Reverend stated.
Rev. Lamar promised to continue to heal the community in the face of racist vandals.
“As a preacher, I view what happened in the yard of our church as a showdown between the God of the universe, the God of all people, the God incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the god of white supremacy,” he said.
“The United States of America must abandon this god, this story, and the violence that flows from fidelity to the same,” Rev Lamar continued.
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