As Sunday morning dawned on a nation torn from days of mourning and sometimes violent protests, faith leaders across the country sought the right words to guide their jagged communities.
Cities nationwide had been rocked by three days of demonstrations, sparked by outrage over the death of George Floyd, who was pinned down with a knee on his neck during a Minneapolis arrest. A deeper sense of injustice, largely over scores of deaths of black people at the hands of police, fueled demonstrations leading to fires, raided buildings, arrests and injuries nationwide.
From many pulpits, moral outrage over racial inequity traced a straight line to religious teachings of equality and fairness.
In Phoenix, hours before Arizona's governor issued a week-long nighttime curfew for the entire state, Warren Stewart Sr. spoke of hurt.
"I experience the deep hurt that we black people have for repetitive racist injustices toward others because of the color of our skin that is manifested in rioting and looting over Mr. Floyd's horrible murder," said Stewart, senior pastor at First Institutional Baptist Church. "I know what we're talking about. I feel what we're feeling ... And I'm mad about what I'm not seeing done."
In Melbourne, Florida, Pastor Craig Hammond told a candlelight vigil crowd Sunday evening events of recent weeks have exposed the ugliness of festering racism.
"The death of George Floyd is only the most recent event on a list that is far too long. We mourn with the families of all on that list, and grieve for every person of color who experiences trauma with each death," said Hammond, of First Church Melbourne.
"Forgive us, Lord, for failing to hear their voices – unless their stories were video-recorded," he said.
But pastors walked a balance between calls for justice and for peace.
“Don’t give in to greed, don’t give in to hatred, and don’t give in to bigotry and don’t give in to bitterness and don’t give in to violence,” said Rev. Raphael Warnock at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where recent days have seen crowds smashing police vehicles and storming buildings.
Warnock invoked the names of the black men and women whose deaths have sparked protest: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Jefferson, Botham Jean, Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin, then showed Emmett Till’s photo. Till was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, at age 14. His murder brought national attention to racial injustice at the time.
“Stand up for justice," Warnock said, "but always stand in love and if we stand in love, love will win every time.”
A sermon and a conversation
In the Carolinas, megachurch pastors John Gray and Steven Furtick held an open conversation about race and religion.
“George Floyd dying on TV with a knee on his neck was our Emmett Till moment where we see the brutality and the lack of humanity that we can literally not ignore any longer," said Gray, a black pastor of the multicultural Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina.
“I’m enraged," Gray said. "I’m also scared because it could be me.”
Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church based in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted Gray for the discussion, which was streamed online. He noted their conversation "is a start but it isn't a solution."
“Somebody asked me, ‘Why do you think more white pastors don’t speak out?’ And I said, ‘Because it’ll mess up their money. It’ll mess up their tithe because they have too many people who think opposite of justice – not race – just justice, just humanity.’ And I think that’s why God wants to tear it all down,” Gray said.
"I want this conversation to begin to be the tipping point for the church to have the necessary conversations around true reconciliation one to another according to John 17," Furtick said, "because if we don't have the presence of God in the conversation and in our hearts then empathy and compassion and activism won't matter."
Messages online
In a country still wary of the coronavirus pandemic, much of religious life remains confined to online spaces, where sermons are live-streamed and scripture is shared via news feeds. The religious conversation about discrimination, police brutality and the week's of protests seized the online conversation, too.
Bernice King, daughter of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr., has been a public presence during recent events, speaking about her father's legacy of nonviolent demonstration but also about the fight against injustice.
Sunday morning on Twitter, she added two spiritual references. One was a quote from the Book of Isaiah: "Learn to do good; seek justice; correct oppression." The other was from her father: "Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself."
Contributing: Rick Neale of Florida Today.
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