The Black Lives Matter banner in front of First Unitarian Church in Talleyville, Delaware Church was vandalized last week, according to Delaware Online. It seemed as if the sign was purposely ripped to read “Lives Matter”, rather than Black Lives Matter.

The Church’s pastor, Reverend Roberta Finkelstein, made a statement that the vandal's goal to silence the conversation about the Black Lives Matter movement will not work. Her ultimate goal is to open the conversation about systematic racism to the whole community, and challenge each person to take a stance against it.

"First Unitarian Church is a largely white congregation. After considerable study and reflection, we erected these banners not only to state our spiritual commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement, but also to spark a conversation within the community about institutional racism and violence aimed at people of color. The person or persons who vandalized our congregation’s public affirmation of faith were apparently unwilling to have that conversation. Instead, they chose vandalism over dialogue, striking with a knife against our highest principles – the spirit of love and compassion that we are trying to embody as allies of Black Lives Matter."

The pastor says she would like to speak with whoever vandalized the banner and use the opportunity to “open a conversation” about the issue, according to Delaware Online.

What I Think

I love what this pastor is doing- standing up for an issue that she may not immediately understand, and also one that that may not immediately affect her. She is standing up for The Black Lives Matter movement because she knows that it effects people right here in our community. I couldn’t be prouder to be from Delaware when I hear of people like Reverend who are making a positive difference and turning a negative situation into one with a positive outcome. An article dated August 5th covers the church’s most recent ideas for retaliating to the ripped banner.

"Basically when you come in the night and destroy our banners, two things are gonna happen: No. 1 we'll put up another one, and No. 2 we will make a donation to Black Lives Matter for each act of vandalism you commit," said the Rev. Roberta Finkelstein. "So today we're making our second donation so they're helping to raise money for the cause that they apparently oppose."

Again, I commend leaders like Finkelstein for using a terrible act of vandalism to demonstrate what fighting hate with love really looks like.

And on another note, whether you agree with someone or not, taking down someone’s property is disrespectful and illegal. I hope whoever vandalized the banner is prosecuted accordingly.

There’s no room for hate in this country. I wish more local organizations would come together like this church congregation did. With blacks still making national news for being wrongfully victimized by the police, we need more people in our local communities to find solutions to this issue. Because of this incident, this church totally earned my respect. Ultimate kudos to First Unitarian Church.