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Thursday, January 20, 2005

AS LONG AS HE HAD NO IDEA IT WAS OFFENSIVE, LET'S GIVE HIM A PASS

EWING - The 82-year-old man who was charged with a bias crime after leaving racial slurs on three answering machines at area black churches Monday is a pastor himself, a fact that came as a surprise to ministers as they held a news conference yesterday to denounce the man's actions.

The Rev. Paul Shafran, pastor emeritus of St. Vladimir Orthodox Church on Grant Street in Trenton, attended the news conference and apologized for the messages he left referring to Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the "N-----" holiday.

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"What kind of N----- holiday do we have today?" he says on the message. "What are you doing, frying chicken and pork chops?"

Shafran said he was reading newspapers, drinking wine and listening to radio shows about the holiday when he decided to call black churches to see what people think of the holiday.

"I used the `n' word," he said. "I didn't know it was offensive. I've heard blacks use it themselves.


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