Washington, DC – On Pentecost Sunday, speaking before an empty Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Rev. William J. Barber III offered this:
We cannot try to hurry up and put the screams and the tears and the hurt back in the bottle, just to get back to some normal that was abnormal in the first place. Hear the screams. Feel the tears. The very people rejected over and over again are the ones who have shown us the possibility of a more perfect nation. They are telling us these wounds are too much. This death is too much.
In an editorial published in the Forward Judi Rudoren, editor-in-chief, also called on Jews to practice “extreme empathy” in this moment of national mourning and rage.
“Do not look away,” said Faith Williams and Elissa Diaz, Co-Chairs of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition. “Do not look for excuses or pretend this problem doesn’t exist. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, are real. They occurred because of racism and white supremacy. It is our obligation as members of a society of all races, religions, and peoples, to confront the ugliness in our nation and be in solidarity with black and brown communities. Our faith traditions call on us to love all people and see humanity in all. We pray for our leaders to lead or for new leaders to replace them. We pray for America to change.”
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
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