A former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan who was at Charlottesville, Virginia last year, says he has changed for the better and is no longer filled with hate after repenting and being washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ.
NBC News reports Ken Parker was one of the hundreds of white nationalists who had gathered at the city’s Emancipation Park around a statue of Robert E. Lee for a “Unite the Right” Rally. Parker told the network he felt the need to be in Charlottesville on that day to “stand up for my white race.”
During the rally, counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed and 19 injured by a car ramming attack. But since the events occurred in Charlottesville, Ken Parker has completely turned his life around. One year later, Parker is trying to undo the wrongs he committed, and that’s partially due to the kindness of a stranger that started him down a different path.
After being dispersed by local law enforcement officials after the rally was declared an unlawful assembly, he met film maker Deeyah Khan, who was working on a documentary on hate groups. “She was completely respectful to me and my fiancée the whole time,” he said about Khan. “And so that kind of got me thinking: She’s a really nice lady. Just because she’s got darker skin and believes in a different God than the God I believe in, why am I hating these people?”
Months later, a group of African-Americans were having a cookout near his home. Parker and his then-girlfriend approached the group, saying they had questions for them. One of the men, William McKinnon III, a pastor at All Saints Holiness Church, sat down with the neo-Nazi couple to answer their questions. The three met up several times after their first meeting to continue their discussions and eventually, Parker agreed to attend one of McKinnon’s church services.
McKinnon invited Parker to the church’s Easter service and he liked what he saw and he heard. His testimony in front of the church membership was something many of the members will never forget.
“I said I was a grand dragon of the KKK, and then the Klan wasn’t hateful enough for me, so I decided to become a Nazi—and a lot of them, their jaws about hit the floor and their eyes got real big,” Parker recalled. “But after the service, not a single one of them had anything negative to say. They’re all coming up and hugging me and shaking my hand, you know, building me up instead of tearing me down.”
Then on July 21, exchanging his green robe for a white one, Parker was baptized by McKinnon, a sign of repentance and his dedication to the Lord. After he was baptized, he was surrounded by church body members, all waiting to give him hugs.
Parker still receives messages from people in the Neo-Nazi movement, but instead of trying to get them to join the KKK like he once did, he now tries to get them to exit the movement.
“You can definitely get out of this movement. I mean, I was into that so much — it was my life, for six years. I never thought I would get out,” Parker said. “Get out. You’re throwing your life away. There is a better way. And that is Jesus.”