The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama has called on the pastor of New Era Baptist Church to take down a controversial sign that reads: "Black Folks Need to Stay Out of White Churches."
The pastor of the church, Michael R. Jordan, has said that the sign was put up in response to a new multi-cultural and multi-denominational church that opened in the community. On the other side, the sign reads, "White folks refused to be our neighbors," according to WBRC.
The Church of the Highlands, which is one of the largest congregation in Alabama, has announced in late April that it will be setting up a new church in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Birmingham this coming fall.
Jordan argued that the real reason the church wanted to establish a church in the community was because it has "too many black folks at their main campus and they want them to leave and come to a church in their inner city."
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin issued a statement calling for the church sign to be brought down.
"There is a spirit that is over this city that has to be brought down. A spirit of racism and division. We have to change the conversation to what we need it to evolve into. 'Darkness can not drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate can not drive out hate; only love can do that,'" the mayor said in a Facebook post earlier this week.
Chris Hodges, the founder of Church of the Highlands, explained that he had chosen Right Reverend Mayo Sowell to lead the new church in the hopes that it will reach drug dealers and eventually stop crime.
Sowell, an African-American former NFL player who became a pastor, has previously served time in prison for intent to distribute cocaine after he was dropped from the Buffalo Bills. After leaving prison, he attended Church of the Highlands' Grants Mill campus because an ankle monitor had prevented him from traveling five miles beyond his home.
He eventually became an associate pastor at the church, where he shares his past experiences with other members.
Jordan asserted that the black pastor for the new church will just be a "token" who will be controlled by the white administrators.
The New Era pastor argued that there will be no change in society as long as black people are attending white churches. He said that white churches in the past had not condemned lynching and slavery, and had recently elected Donald Trump who he described as "racist."
