Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Oklahoma, invited some living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre and called on churches across the nation to take the lead in reparations for the victims.
Thousands of people learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre as the 100th anniversary of the event approached, paying their respects and offering their condolences to those who were killed.
Pastor Todd extended an invitation to the survivors to attend the city's Juneteenth commemoration service on Sunday, June 20th, the Linken Entertainment reported.
Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Randle were among the survivors who were present. During the ceremony, Pastor Todd, on behalf of the church, presented the surviving survivors with checks for $200,000 apiece.
As per the report in Christian Post (CP), Todd thanked those he invited for having managed to maintain a normal life despite the tragedy as he handed them the financial assistance that the church had prepared.
He explained that he is a just young black guy who had taken over a church from a white man who had constructed it in North Tulsa. This could not have happened, he added, if all of them did not survive the slaughter.
"Today, we can't restore everything that has been stolen from you. But today, we can put a seed in the ground," he told them.
In his sermon, he went into great depth on the biblical principle of reparations, stressing the fact that the Church has the primary duty for it.
"Reparation is not a political word," he reasoned in his sermon on Sunday. "Reparation is not a word that your left-wing friends or your right-wing friends have coined. Let me give you the definition of reparations. 'The action of repairing something that was devastated.' Reparations mean that somebody is going to take up the mantle and actually put into action the process of repairing something that was destroyed."
Citing Job 2:25 which states, "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you," he emphasized that God is definitely going to bring reparations, and stated God indicated that the controversy must begin in the Church. He pointed out that the government could not be obliged to make reparations.
"It's reparations season, and change starts in the Church," he proclaimed.
Todd further said that since he is a member of the Church, he must participate in the restitution process.
"If God is the God of reparation and restoration, and I am God's. I am one of God's people, then I am responsible for being a part of restoring what has been torn down," he said.
CP noted that Transformation Church handed out a total of $1 million to the victims of the tragedy and charitable organizations on Sunday.
They gave a $100,000 payment to AJ Johnson, proprietor of Oasis Fresh Market, which serves an underprivileged neighborhood with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Additionally, the church made a $50,000 donation to the Terrance Crutcher Foundation, a $50,000 donation to Build in Tulsa, a $100,000 donation to One Race Movement, and a $100,000 donation to Greenwood Cultural Center.
