Birmingham, Alabama — A Birmingham, Alabama pastor is being criticized for his controversial messages attacking a megachurch's plans to open a satellite campus in the inner city area.
On one side of the New Era Baptist Church sign it states that "Black folks need to stay out of white churches," and the other side says, "White folks refused to be our neighbors."
Pastor Michael Jordan claims that the Church of the Highlands, which has been recognized as one of the largest megachurches in the country, isn't being truthful about why they want to open a campus in the area.
"The real reason the Church of the Highlands want to put a white church in a black neighborhood is they have too many black folks at their main campus and they want them to leave and come to a church in the inner city," Pastor Jordan told WVTM.
The Church of the Highlands has said its intentions in opening a satellite campus are to help curb crime.
"If you don't want to live next door to us, you can't fight crime in a city where you don't live," Pastor Jordan said.
Birmingham's mayor, Randall Woodfin, called on the church pastor to take down the sign.
"There is a spirit of racism and division that is over this city. It must be brought down. We have to change the conversation to what we need it to evolve into," Woodfin tweeted with a picture of the sign.
