Emergency Declared Before Charlottesville Anniversary

Charlottesville Interfaith Group Co-Led by Adventist Pastor to Advocate for Affordable Housing

November 2, 2017: Daniel Xisto, the pastor of Charlottesville Seventh-day Adventist Church, is co-president of a IMPACT, an interfaith coalition comprising nearly 30 congregations in the Charlottesville, Virginia area. At their 12th annual assembly on October 24, the group voted to focus on campaigning for affordable housing in their community.

At the assembly, congregational caucuses voted to focus on affordable housing instead of on two other pressing issues: impoverished living conditions for immigrants and access to healthcare.

Charlottesville’s The Daily Progress reported that the decision was made after listening to testimony from community residents struggling with social challenges.

Xisto (recently interviewed by Adventist Today in relation to this summer’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville) said that the majority of his congregation had hoped to focus on helping the immigrant community.

He nevertheless supported the push for affordable housing and was moved after listening to an elderly woman speak about her challenges to pay rent for her basement apartment.

“To know that we had a grandmother in our midst who is having a hard time paying her bills and who has to walk a lot to get to her home, it’s really sad to me,” said the Adventist pastor.

Pastor Jim Bleakley, of Charlottesville Vineyard Christian Church, led the coalition in a prayer addressing the other issues of immigrant living conditions and healthcare.

“Even though we haven’t chosen to go in those directions, we know, Lord, that you’re still at work,” Bleakley said. “We trust those things (to) your hands, Lord.”

Progress reports on two previous focus areas—combating substance abuse and improving elder care—were given at the assembly.

IMPACT will hold its other annual meeting in the spring. This meeting, titled the Nehemiah Action, specifically seeks commitments from community leaders in support of social change priorities.

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Bishops tackle 'sin of racism'

An Ecumenical Statement from the Boston Faith Community on the Racial Tr...

An Ecumenical Statement from the Boston Faith Community on the Racial Tragedy in Charlottesville, VA

CMMInterfaith

Published on Aug 24, 2017

Co-Led by Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries and The New Democracy Center, members of Boston’s faith community convened Wednesday, August 16th, 2017 11:00 A.M. at Fanueil Hall in downtown Boston to express their concerns about the tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia the previous weekend.


Speaking:

Mr. Kevin C. Peterson

Exec. Dir., The New Democracy Center


Rev. Josephy Rocha

Minister, Grace Church of All Nations


Rev. Dr. Rodney L. Petersen

Exec. Dir., Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries

Exec. Dir., The Lord's Day Alliance of the U.S.

Chair, Presbytery of Boston


Mr. Michael Felsen

Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor

Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries Board Member


Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Dyer, M.S.W., LiC.S.W.

Dir. of In-Ministry Programs, Clinical, Health and Pastoral Care Studies

Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary


Rev. Dana Gonsal

Assoc. Minister, Peoples Baptist Church

Chaplain, Nashua Street Jail


Bishop William E. Dickerson II

Pastor, Greater Love Tabernacle


Rev. Dr. Richard N. Chrisman

Retired Associate Minister, Old South Church

Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries Board Member


Rev. Mary Day Miller

Exec. Minister, The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts

REPORT: White Supremacist Leader in Charlottesville Jason Kessler Was Obama Supporter – Occupy Protester

Joshua Caplan Aug 14th, 2017 10:19 am



White supremacist and ‘Unite the Right’ leader, Jason Kessler, was once reportedly a supporter a former President Obama and the Occupy movement.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (an organization that is certainly no friend to Conservatives), Kessler revealed his political transformation around November 2016, the same month then candidate Donald Trump won the presidential election.



Southern Poverty Law Center reports:


Rumors abound on white nationalist forums that Kessler’s ideological pedigree before 2016 was less than pure and seem to point to involvement in the Occupy movement and past support for President Obama.

At one recent speech in favor of Charlottesville’s status as a sanctuary city, Kessler live-streamed himself as an attendee questioned him and apologized for an undisclosed spat during Kessler’s apparent involvement with Occupy. Kessler appeared visibly perturbed by the woman’s presence and reminders of their past association.

Kessler himself has placed his “red-pilling” around December of 2013 when a PR executive was publicly excoriated for a tasteless Twitter joke about AIDS in Africa.

Regarding the incident, Kessler stated “… so it was just a little race joke, nothing that big of a deal, she didn’t have that many followers, she probably didn’t think anybody was gonna see it,”

Regardless of Kessler’s past politics, the rightward shift in his views was first put on display in November, 2016 when his tirade against Wes Bellamy began.

On Sunday, a violent leftist mob shut down a press conference by white nationalists Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler outside of Charlottesville City Hall.

The mob reportedly chased Spencer and Kessler back to their waiting vehicles.




Doug McKelway reported from Charlottesville.

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