Rare Move: Church Apologizes to Those They’ve Hurt
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, September 15, 2009
- Viewed 117
- (8) comments so far
The Rev. Rick Cole stepped onto the podium Sunday and into the Sacramento church's troubled past.
In front of a packed and stunned congregation, the senior pastor of Capital Christian Center apologized to anyone who had been hurt by the church, acknowledging pain that church leaders may have caused individuals and the community.
The pastor then mentioned two people "whose stories attracted national media attention and caused a lot of pain."
Both were in the audience of 2,400 people.
One was Christina Silvas. In 2001, church officials asked Silvas to withdraw her daughter from the church-run school because Silvas was working as a stripper. On Sunday, Silvas sat with her daughters during the worship service.
Ben Sharpe, who had been banned from his eighth-grade graduation in 1995 after getting a buzz cut, sat with his mother and family friends during the service. School officials had prohibited Sharpe, an African American and a star student, from participating in the ceremony because his haircut violated school policy.
The church's action set off a media firestorm, with many accusing church leaders of racism.
Fourteen years later, Cole made an emotional plea to Sharpe.
"On behalf of leaders who did not intend to betray Ben Sharpe and his family, but by our actions much pain was caused, I want to publicly ask forgiveness," said Cole, struggling to control his emotions. "I also want to apologize to our community for the seeds sown of racial division."
Cole left the podium, walked over to Sharpe and embraced him and his mother, Faye. The congregation rose in a standing ovation, many people reaching for tissues.
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This is rare that a church's leadership admits to anyone that they may have been wrong.
Have you or your church had to eat crow? How did that go for you, your church, and your community?
And what do you think of what this church has done?
Todd
Comments
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ck on Tue, September 15, 2009
Interesting stories. While over the top, if there was in fact a policy I support the hair cut decision. But bad policy is bad policy and changing that is a good thing.
The stripper incident is interesting. I think the correct action would have been to allow the daughter to attend for free and help the stripper get out of that job. I wouldn’t, in good conscience, want to accept that money into a churches general fund knowing where it came from.
Essay writing services on Tue, September 15, 2009
unforgotten article, its so interesting and entertaining
Anthony Stephens on Tue, September 15, 2009
It is A beautiful sight when the church is acting like she should. This is so encouraging to see that we don’t need to just sweep our sins under the carpet. We must confess and repent. Our church fellowship had to deal with some racial issues from decades ago that had never been dealt with. I am so grateful for our pastor who had the wisdom (much like this Rev. Cole) to realize that we would only die until our sins were confessed and there was repentance.
Don on Mon, September 21, 2009
BRAVO Pastor Cole….....in the name of Jesus!
Stosh D. Walsh on Tue, September 29, 2009
Unfortunately, the fact that this is even a story is evidence of how far adrift the church has meandered. Christianity would be impossible to resist if this kind of openness existed in all its outlets. Alas, it does not, and we are less winsome because of it.
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Tim Lehnerer on Thu, October 08, 2009
What an amazingly savvy public relations move. And it only took them eight or fourteen years to apologize!
The real question to me is “Why didn’t the people who were hurt by the church find some other place to worship?”; it seems pretty pat and obvious to have reporters handy to take pictures of a minister apologizing to the parishoners who just happened to be there on Apology Day.
bankruptcyrecords on Wed, December 02, 2009
I think this is a good action, being honest and ask forgiveness are the basis of the church work.
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