Concord church holds 'Racists Anonymous' meetings

The Racist Anonymous meetings were actually started by a church in California, which asked other congregations to join. Trinity United Church of Christ in Concord answered the call.

About a dozen people from all backgrounds have attended the meetings since they began last month. Most are church members, but people from the community have come to more recent meetings.

The program is led by a licensed therapist and follows the traditional 12-step model found in alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous programs. The program encourages people to say as much or as little as they choose.

Church pastor, Rev. Nathan King, said he is sick of the recent shootings and racial unrest and wanted to do more than pray.

King admits he had some difficulty speaking freely about the topic at first.

“It may not be the first thing you want to talk about at the table at the Thanksgiving dinner with your family, but those conversations are going to be more common going forward,” he said.