Boston, Massachusetts, Christian leaders are calling on “white churches” to dole out millions of dollars in reparations to black people to rectify their history with slavery.
“We call sincerely and with a heart filled with faith and Christian love for our white churches to join us and not be silent around this issue of racism and slavery and commit to reparations,” Reverend Kevin Peterson said at a recent event at Resurrection Lutheran Church, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the reverend, King’s Chapel, Arlington Street Church, Trinity Church, and Old South Church must “publicly atone for the sins of slavery” and “commit to a process of reparations” due to hundreds of slaves being owned by their clergy and parishioners in the past.
“Where they will extend their great wealth – tens of millions of dollars among some of those churches – into the black community,” Peterson said, adding that a letter signed by 16 clergymen sent to the named churches outlined their reparations plans.
The group of clergymen — who the outlet noted is made up of black and white Christians — listed payment methods including cash, creating affordable housing, or erecting “financial and economic institutions in Black Boston.”
Peterson also pointed to the Catholic Church for assisting in “sustaining institutionalized racism across the city.”
“Not only are we looking at the period of slavery, we’re looking at three centuries of institutionalized anti-black racism and the Catholic Church is inclusive of the churches we want to engage,” he stated.
The event was put together by the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, which has been pushing for the city government to pay out a whopping $15 billion for its participation in chattel slavery.
Rev. Peterson has also called on Faneuil Hall Marketplace, located in the city’s historic area, to be renamed to get rid of the association to Peter Faneuil, the slave trafficker who built it.
Reverend John Gibbons of Arlington Street Church — one of the institutions named in the letter — joined the event and said that it is not enough for churches to simply discuss their history and the concept of reparations.
“Somehow we need to move with some urgency toward action and so part of what we’re doing is to prod and encourage white churches to go beyond what they have done thus far,” he said.
King’s Chapel already acknowledges that ministers and church members owned a total of 219 slaves throughout its centuries-long history, while Old South Church published a report “on its historical ties to slavery” according to the outlet.
Reverend John Edgerton of Old South is on board with the reparations activists’ effort, telling the Boston Globe that the church “is committed to learning the truth about our history and making repair — the God who loves justice demands nothing less.”
The Archdiocese of Boston stated that the “suffering of the black community is constantly with us in the Commonwealth and nationally” and announced that leaders would “certainly review” what the activists proposed.
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