(RNS) — Nearly six months ago, Ben Boswell gave a sermon begging members of his Charlotte, North Carolina, church not to give up after Donald Trump’s election.
“We may not have been able to stop the darkness from coming,” he told members of his liberal church on Nov. 10. “But that does not mean the fight is over. It has only just begun.”
Two weeks after giving that sermon, he was forced to resign as senior pastor of Myers Park Baptist Church, in Charlotte’s toniest neighborhood. But just as he urged his flock not to give up the fight, he is now following his own advice.
On June 1, Boswell, 44, will give his first sermon at a new Baptist church he is founding with the support of dozens of his former members. At the new Collective Liberation Church, whose logo features a butterfly breaking free of chains locked around its legs, Boswell promises in a promotional website video to build a church committed to “dismantl[ing] systems of oppression and creat[ing] justice, equity, and freedom for everybody — for all people.”
RELATED: To put pressure on Trump, Democrats turn to religion — and religious activists
For Boswell, who has a 15-year-old adopted Black daughter, a big piece of that project is becoming anti-racist. He is proud to advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, even as the government has shut down DEI efforts in federal offices and pressured businesses and universities to do likewise. He stands for the rights of LGBTQ+ and Indigenous people. He wa …