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I'm told my support for Ukraine is "an abuse of the platform you have as a pastor", "Be careful when you publicly take sides", and it is claimed I "compromise your position of a pastor who leads a black majority church when you openly back their side."

Let me be clear... I have moved in black majority circles for 2/3 of my life. I am staunchly antiracism and have been attacked for standing for racial justice and reconciliation. I empathise, show solidarity, and act. I reject attempts to redirect true narrative with bothsidesism and whataboutism.

The oldest Baptist church in Zhytomyrs'ka Oblast, Ukraine, is in Solodyri, formerly Neudorf, a community of German immigrants. These immigrants joined many in adopting Baptist beliefs under the ministry of Gottfried Alf, who from the age of 27 led the Baptist movement in Poland. The church was formally constituted by Alf in 1866, and led by Karl Ondra. Ondra was a Lutheran who set out to convert Baptists but became one himself. With 25 others, he attended the Mission School in Hamburg, Germany led by Johann Oncken in 1865.

For the avoidance of doubt, considering some commentary I have seen today, by the "flight into Egypt" Jesus became quite transparently and definitionally, a refugee. This is utterly incontrovertible and should be uncontroversial, regardless of political philosophy. It is possible to be a refugee from one's state, province, or country yet at the same time not from the Empire to which said place belongs. Jesus was safe in the Roman province of Aegyptus under Prefect Gaius Turranius but not in the vassal kingdom of Judea under Herod the Great.

Either “the black community” exists or it doesn’t. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If it exists, then it has unique issues that need addressing with kindness and compassion in an accurately informed context of historical literacy, social awareness, and cultural understanding from a position of biblical authority and sufficiency...