In a bold statement of support, a congregation in Tennessee has donated $1,000 to each member of their local police department.
Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church of Jonesborough raised a total of $23,000 for their local department, presenting the checks in a ceremony held on Saturday morning.
Lighthouse Pastor Perry Cleek told The Christian Post that his church felt obligated to make the donation in response to news about the abuse many police officers have experienced recently.
Cleek said, “We wanted to make a bold statement in support of law enforcement. Our desire was for our action to send a symbolic message of our support to the Jonesborough Police, but to also show our support in a very practical way by recognizing and supporting each individual employee.”
The Saturday event had around a couple hundred attendees.
In recent weeks, widespread protests and demonstrations erupted in response to the killing of George Floyd on May 25. Some turned violent.
Many have seen the death of Floyd as part of a broader problem of police brutality and systemic racism, and have called for reduced funding or even disbanding certain police departments.
Regarding the death of Floyd, Cleek called it “without question an act of evil” and called for “the ones guilty to face the full justice of the Law.”
Cleek said, “Our response to the evil all around is to do something good.”