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WATCH: Protesters Storm Baptist Church, Harass Children, Assault Parishioners: ‘How’s Your Head Feel, Pastor?’

   DailyWire.com
On Sunday, June 7, thousands gathered at the Riverfront Park in Troy, New York to take a peaceful stand against police brutality.
Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Videos posted on social media show parishioners, both black and white, being harassed and physically assaulted at Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York.

The protesters, repeatedly shouting “Black Lives Matter,” even harassed and blocked churchgoers while they were with their young children, using a megaphone to scream at the families, shaming and threatening their parents with calls to CPS, or Child Protective Services.

The assaults, harassment, and protesting have been occurring since at least the end of June, according to the viral videos posted online. The church has refused to close or back down, directing men from the parish to help escort fellow worshipers inside as they are blocked by BLM protesters.

Grace Baptist Church made headlines last month for giving away an AR-15 as a prize for a church raffle. When the giveaway was first reported, Pastor John Koletas told WNYT that the church held it in solidarity with hunters and gun owners who have been “viciously attacked by anti-Christian socialist policies.” One local critic told WRGB at the time that the giveaway exhibited “extreme poor taste,” citing “all of the shootings going on in all of our communities.”

However, it’s unclear if the gun-giveaway is connected to the protests shown in the videos. In the videos, protesters slam the church as “racist” but do not appear to mention the AR-15 giveaway.

In one of the videos, protesters storm the church and repeatedly chant “Black Lives Matter” and a near-fight breaks out. Additionally, one of the protesters yells at a churchgoer, “f*** you.” He responds by saying “Jesus loves you.” The protester replies by telling the man Jesus doesn’t love him.

In other footage, mostly black churchgoers are shamed and screamed at by protesters as they walk into the church. One female protester yells at a black parishioner, “You should be ashamed, sister.”

A young white mother with three kids is also harassed as she tries to enter Grace Baptist. The mother is seen trying to console one of her young sons as he is visibly upset and scared, trying to leave the area.

At one encounter, a churchgoer attempts to go up the steps into Grace Baptist but is held back and physically assaulted by protesters. The pastor of the church gets involved to save the man, who is grossly outnumbered.

The pastor was apparently assaulted during the scuffle, as one protester taunts, “How’s your head feel, pastor?” The pastor was also called “soft” and a “p****.”

“Stop hiding behind your godd*mn religion,” another protester shouted. “This church is racist,” screamed another.

As for the church, Grace Baptist is not backing down.

A Twitter account for the church posted a video of one of the pastors vowing to continue on, refusing to change his messaging or being scared away by the novel coronavirus or the “mob.”

“We will NEVER apologize to the mob!” the video, posted on Monday, is captioned (view below).

“It’s not my fault for preaching the same thing we’ve preached for 33 years,” the pastor says. “It’s not my fault everybody wants to put it online, I don’t care. They can shut us down. I ain’t changing my preaching because we’re [online].”

WATCH the violent protesting, below:

WATCH the response from Grace Baptist:

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