Leaders in Faith Forward Dallas spoke out Monday to support Friendship-West Baptist Church after a 'Back the Blue' caravan stopped in the church parking lot in Oak Cliff on Sunday.
"The fact that they brought a confederate flag, that is intimidating to the Black community," said Amy Moore of Faith Forward Dallas. "That is saying we hold power over you."
Pastor of Friendship-West, Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III, said the church approved a small group to use the parking lot, but did not have the real information about many people would be there, or what the event was about.
"I just couldn't imagine that our parking lot would be inundated and packed with White supremacists," Haynes said.
"We're not just here for a kumbaya moment," Pastor George Mason of Faith Forward Dallas and Wilshire Baptist said. "What's happening in groups like this is there is just kind of a bullying effect that's just not going to work anymore, and people in the faith community have to step up and say, no, that's not going to be the way we do business in Dallas."
Haynes said he has received apologies from some of the people who attended the event, saying they didn't know there would be messages of hate and politics.
"The change that the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, is calling for will take place when allies like Faith Forward Dallas step up and speak up," Haynes said.
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"There's a difference between what is a right and what is right," Mason said. "And this was not right."
