During Sunday's service attended by Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, a pastor at a predominantly black church in Maryland denounced racially charged comments that were allegedly made in reference to Haiti and African nations last week by President Donald Trump, WUSA reported Monday.
Dr. Maurice Watson is pastor at the predominantly black Metropolitan Baptist Church in Prince George's County, a congregation that was founded in 1864. On Sunday, during his sermon, Watson criticized "a hurtful, dehumanizing, visceral, guttural, ugly adjective, that I care not to repeat in church."
“I stand today as your pastor to vehemently denounce and reject any such characterizations of the nations of Africa and of our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Watson said. “And I further say: Whoever made such a statement, and whoever used such a visceral, disrespectful, dehumanizing adjective to characterize the nations of Africa … whoever said it, is wrong. And they ought to be held accountable.”
Members of the congregation stood and cheered, WUSA reported.
Pence did not comment about the sermon. Trump has denied using an expletive during his discussions with members of Congress.
Watson, who has been at Metropolitan since 2014, earned his doctorate in ministry from Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, according to the pastor's biography on the church's website.
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