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Post by M. Hawbaker on Sept 24, 2020 15:46:16 GMT
(RNS) — It’s known in the United Methodist Church as the “Cross and Flame.”
But the denomination’s logo — two red flames intertwined with a thin, black cross — means something else to the Rev. Edlen Cowley, pastor of Fellowship United Methodist Church near Dallas.
It reminds Cowley, who is Black, of the first burning cross he saw.
He was 10 years old, riding in the car with his family from Marshall, Texas, where his dad pastored Miles Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, to Shreveport, Louisiana. His mother pointed it out, burning alongside the freeway, explaining that the symbol was meant to instill fear in Black people.
“No longer should we be represented by an image that was devised to evoke fear in the minds of so many,” Cowley wrote this summer for United Methodist News Service.
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Post by M. Hawbaker on Sept 24, 2020 15:49:52 GMT
Sigh... How can a Pastor of all people not realize that the divided tongue of fire has been used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit by Christians going all the way back to the birth of the Church in Acts chapter 2, long before there even were any "White Supremacist" groups like the ones who burned crosses in the US south?
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Post by barb43 on Sept 24, 2020 16:59:39 GMT
Sigh... How can a Pastor of all people not realize that the divided tongue of fire has been used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit by Christians going all the way back to the birth of the Church in Acts chapter 2, long before there even were any "White Supremacist" groups like the ones who burned crosses in the US south? I was wondering the same thing. I'm wondering his fitness as a pastor. This is sad, coming from one who has a duty and calling to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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