This story from BET almost sounds too good to be true. But I am oh so very glad that it is true. (Excerpt below)
The Black church has taken over the KKK, or at least a store selling its memorabilia in South Carolina.
A circuit court judge recently ruled that New Beginnings Baptist Church is the rightful property owner of the Redneck Shop, which operates as a so-called Klan museum, selling robes and t-shirts with racial slurs.
According to court documents, in 1997, ownership of the Laurens, South Carolina building in which the store exists was transferred to the Rev. David Kennedy and his church, by a Klansman fighting with others within the hate group. A clause in the deed, however, entitled John Howard, a former KKK grand dragon for the Carolinas, to operate his business in the building until he dies.
After years of trying to have the property inspected, Howard was sued by Kennedy, New Beginnings and others in 2008 in an effort to void the agreement and, on Dec. 9, 2011, a judge ruled in Kennedy and the church’s favor.
“It has been a long time coming,” Kennedy, who learned of the ruling this week, told the Associated Press. “We knew we had done everything right. … The court knows that we have suffered.”
Kennedy claims that because of the store, his congregation’s numbers have decreased as some of its 200 members became fearful of reprisals from Klan members. The congregants also found Nazi and Confederate symbols and dead animals left outside of the mobile home where the church now meets, though it is not known if Klansmen were responsible.
What a huge divine “Gotcha!” this is for some of the unbridled ignorance and stupidity of racism in my home state. I pray that their church members will overcome fear and set up shop in that building to preach Jesus’ gospel of grace that tears down walls of hostility.
Maybe some of those KKK people will meet Jesus there one day.
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