In the wake of the weekend of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, four top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) issued a statement condemning white supremacy and racism.

The leaders – General Assembly comoderators Jan Edmiston and T Denise Anderson, Presbyterian Mission Agency Interim Executive Director Tony De La Rosa, and General Assembly Stated Clerk J Herbert Nelson, II – praised the ‘faithful witness’ of church leaders, especially those in Charlottesville, and said that ‘Scripture has been misused to justify white supremacy and racism’.

The statement adds that: “White supremacy and racism stand in stark, irreconcilable contradiction to God’s intention for humanity” and acknowledges the church’s historic complicity in systemic racism in the US. And the leaders commit the church to “stand against, speak against and work against racism and white supremacy, this day and every day.” (PC(USA))