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By Thomas L. Brunkow

On the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, hate raised its ugly head. This time in the form of swastikas spray painted on the front door of St. Marks UMC in Boyds.

Another African-American church up-county was painted with racist graffiti, along with Ridgeview Middle School and Quince Orchard High School. Anyone who thought racism was a thing of the past in Montgomery County got a rude awakening.

Following these incidents, one afternoon, about 100 of us gathered at St. Marks to show our solidarity and support for the congregation and to listen to religious and community leaders denounce these hate crimes.

Standing at the entrance to the church, the Rev. Tim Warner stood tall as he faced the crowd, the press and the television cameras with the swastika visible behind him. First, he prayed to the God of justice for his people and for the healing of their broken hearts, and he prayed for the perpetrators and for the healing of their hate-filled hearts. Then he spoke, 'We consider this to be a desecration of holy space.'

He said that some people?s immediate reaction to the swastika was to paint it over or hide it. Warner said no; what the church must do is 'shine a light on it,' to show everyone that sin exists in the world and to show that he and his congregation will not be intimidated by such expressions of hate.

Bishop John R. Schol spoke next, stating emphatically that we will not move; we are here to stay.

The bishop also had a word for parents. 'We need to teach our children and youth about racism. We need to teach them how to relate and engage with one another, regardless of who they are or where they come from.'

County Police Chief Thomas Manger, when questioned if there are any leads, said the letters W.A.R. were painted on one of the schools. It?s the insignia of White Aryan Resistance, a white supremacist hate group out of California. The founder, Tom Metzger, has been encouraging 'lone wolves' to use this sort of tactic to stir up fear across the country and possibly to win recruits to their hate-filled cause, the chief said.

What concerned the Police Chief, and other county leaders present, is the spike in hate crimes in Montgomery ? six events so far in the last two months.

Rev. Warner spoke again, quite eloquently. He pointed us to a more profound truth. Even as he denounced these blatant acts of hatred, he spoke of the capacity in each of us to inflict harm on others, often unconsciously or unwittingly.

He reminded us that Montgomery County had a history of being two counties ? 'one largely black, one largely white; one largely wealthy, one largely not so wealthy.'

It falls upon the shoulders of community leaders to erase such divisions, he said.

We all stand against these swastikas, yes, and rightly so. But that?s fairly easy to do. What is more difficult, and perhaps more important in the long run, is to see the more

subtle, more invisible forms of racism and classism that we all participate in, if only by our silent acceptance of the status quo ? the two counties reality.

Perhaps the ignorance and bigotry that spurred some misgbwc_superusered people to deface churches, schools and synagogues will alert us all to the truth that prejudice and hatred lie just beneath the surface of society.

It should make us all vigilant to stand firmly against it whenever it raises its ugly head. We should, as the bishop implores us, teach our children in our homes, in our schools and Sunday schools that the narrow-minded way is not God?s way, that we are to regard others, as Rev. King said, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

And we need to be vigilant when it comes to looking into our own hearts and to root out all vestiges of fear and bias we may find there.

In light of these dark events, I believe more than ever that Woodside UMC is called to a special mission ? to be a beacon unto the county, a city on a hill, a light on the lampstand. Why? Because we have a long, 30-year history as an integrated church.

We are God?s experiment, if you will, striving to live together as brothers and sisters in Christ under one roof in this house of prayer for all people. Sometimes we do a better job at it than at other times. But we keep at it. And that?s the main thing.

Do you know how Woodside became an integrated church? It?s a story full of gospel truth.

Up until the mid-1960s Woodside was an all-white church. But when the Silver Spring neighborhoods began to be integrated something happened.

In the mid-1960s Dorothy Horton, a brilliant soprano soloist, was asked by the soloist at Metropolitan UMC to substitute for her. The pastor, however, fired Dorothy, saying that the church could not have a black soloist. The story made the front page of the Washington Post.

The Rev. Bill Hall, the pastor of Woodside Church at the time, read the article and noted that the Hortons lived in Silver Spring. He went and visited the family and invited them to come to Woodside and Dorothy to sing in the Woodside choir. They came; and Dorothy, praise God, is still singing in our choir.

About the same time, a distinguished educator, Dr. Walter Brown and his family, moved into our neighborhood from the District. One Sunday they tried Woodside and saw the Hortons, and they stayed.

During that same era, the Whitleys were attending Asbury UMC in Washington. But in April 1968, on the weekend when Rev. King was assassinated, they couldn?t get into the city.

'Of all Sundays we need to be in church today. We can?t get to Asbury, maybe we should try that white church we pass every week,' Kate Whitley said.

They showed up in this sanctuary, and have been here ever since, over the years becoming strong pillars of this congregation.

God took the sins and atrocities of racism and wrought a new kind of church in Silver Spring ? a multi-racial, multi-ethnic congregation that reflects the rainbow hues of God?s magnificent creation.

This commentary is excerpted from a sermon preached by the Rev. Thomas L. Brunkow on Human Relations Sunday, Jan,15, at Woodside UMC in Silver Spring.