Imagine if you will, the encircling of vocal Ku Klux Klan protesters with silent protesters bearing placards reading, “Love.”

It’s going to happen Sept. 15 when the Klan has scheduled a rally against immigration on the City Hall lawn.

Ministers of at least three local churches are urging their congregations and anyone else who would like to join them in “silent witness against” the Klan’s message of separation, according to St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church rector, the Rev. Jeremy Lucas.

“I wouldn’t call this a counter-protest,” said Lucas. “But at 2:30 p.m. on that Saturday the people can come together at St. Timothy’s, First Presbyterian or First United Methodist. In a very orderly fashion we will all walk over to First Methodist and make a circle around the block. We will all hold up a sign, that will probably read ‘Love’ as a witness against what they are preaching, their rhetoric.

“It is important for most people who can come out to do so. The Klan, I believe, for the most part, is from other places outside of Limestone County. They want to come in and stir up trouble and give Athens a bad reputation.”

Lucas said the local Ministerial Alliance will issue a statement later in the week, saying they respect the right to gather, which is the right of every American citizen, but the alliance completely rejects their message as incompatible with gospel.

“We are trying to make something very visible because a silent protest will say to the Klan that we will not engage in their hateful rhetoric. We stand against what they preach, but we do not stand against them as human beings. As a priest, I believe that everybody is redeemable. They can be redeemed by rejecting that kind of violent hatred against their fellow human beings.”

When asked to comment on the planned visit to the Blackburn Community Center on Sept. 29-30 of a ministry founded by two ex-Aryan Nations members, Clark “Laslo” Patterson and Jonathan Williams, the International United Church of Yahweh, Lucas said that group’s message of separation of the races is also “incompatible with the gospel.”

“What I would say is that this community does not need anyone coming in and planting seeds of hate,” said Lucas. “The Ministerial Alliance is against that kind of message. No matter how it is packaged, it is incompatible with the gospel.

“I think a good showing coming out in silent witness will send a strong message not only to the Klan, but any kind of church that preaches separation and hate, that we are not interested. We are a progressive community that does not support their message. It is truly sad that in 2007 we are still dealing with that kind of bigotry and hatred. It is sad that that message still holds any validity for anybody.

“I know a lot of people who say, ‘just ignore the Klan, don’t give them any attention and that will make them go away.’ While I completely respect that opinion, there comes a time when we can’t ignore evil and hatred. It is like a virus. Unless you inoculate yourself, it will spread. It is an everyday battle against the racial prejudice within us and we must work to become involved with solving our community problems without scape-goating any individual or group and blaming them for our problems.



Golden Rule

“There are lots of opinions on the issues surrounding immigration, but preaching hatred and violence is not how to deal with the issue in a democracy. As a Christian, we bring yet another perspective to the forefront of that conversation. Over, over and over again in the Bible, God tells the people of Israel to care for aliens, widows and orphans in their land.

“He told them over and over to remember when they were aliens. Then he gives them the Golden Rule: ‘Treat those people like you would want to be treated.’”