Black Preachers across Houston
Use faith and conversation to address police brutality
Rudy Rasmus remembers seeing the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers on strike and feeling confused. The African-American laborers were holding signs that read “I Am a Man.” “I was perplexed by even the necessity of a man holding a sign saying ‘I am a man’,” said Rasmus, who was 12 years old at the time.
Through the years it became clear to him that, “those men knew that they were men,” but they “were reminding people who might’ve diminished their value and their worth in the human family that they were men too.”
Nearly four decades later Rasmus, a pastor at St. John’s Down- town, sees a parallel to those “I Am a Man” signs in the Black Lives Matter movement, which continues to be a well of communion and, for some, controversy. The movement hits close to home for Rasmus because some church members of the movement hold meetings at St. John’s.
“The fact that some young people in a moment coined a phrase, that now has become the mantra of a movement reminding the world that black lives matter is only disturbing to people who see that as a slight. I don’t feel it was ever deemed or designed as a slight,” Rasmus said. “In this country, there has never been a question as to whether or not a white life mattered as relates to social justice, as relates to economics, as relates to employment and opportunities. We’re only a few years past a time when there was no question whether a black life mattered.”
The phrase that began as a social media hashtag has grown into a cultural force, a rally cry for people tired of seeing African Americans mistreated, and sometimes killed, by members of law enforcement. Amid a summer of turmoil, which has seen Black men killed by police in Baton Rouge and Minnesota in
what many are calling unjust fashion, Rasmus and other African-American pastors across Houston are looking to their faith as a way to make sense of the violence and using the church as a place to start important conversations about troubling topics. Compassionate voice
Emmanuel Jackson, lead pastor at Living Word Lutheran Church in Katy, continues to have conversations about Black Lives Matter with members of his predominantly white church.
He encourages people to be guided by Jesus’ call of compassion.
Jackson describes compassion as “a deep, gut feeling that moves us from our own world, which is often a very narrow world, to share the experiences of another person’s world.
“Compassion compels me to get up and listen to another person’s story and another person’s pain,” Jackson said. “Compassion compels me to listen, to try my best through the grace of God to be in that person’s shoes.”
He urges his own church members and other community members to use that compassion when trying to understand different perspectives.
Jackson believes one way a dialogue can be started is for community members to host a dinner inviting others from different backgrounds. He reminds those having dialogue to truly listen to the other side.
“I think we do a lot of talking and not enough listening,” Jackson said. “We are quick to dismiss people because they make us uncomfortable or their world view doesn’t jive with our world reality. Listening helps to mitigate some of that.” Necessary talk
Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell had a similar conversation last month at his church, Windsor Village United Methodist.
It was prompted by his 18-year-old son who came to him distraught about the two back-to-back killings of African-American men by police officers in Baton Rouge and Minnesota. His son raised a point about how Black churches in the civil rights movement used to be a place where community members could voice their frustrations. Based on that conversation, he decided to hold a meeting with community members, police officers and the district attorney at Windsor Village.
The meeting lasted longer than planned, as the group of more than 750 people talked for more than four hours. Caldwell said community members felt relief from being able to voice their perspectives to Houston police officers and Harris County district attorney Devon Anderson.
“They were just happy to have a chance to express their side in an accepting setting,” Cadwell said. “They were heard.”
Caldwell said conversations turned to how police officers can approach people during traffic stops and how people who are pulled over can react so tensions don’t escalate.
The dialogue at Caldwell’s church was open and honest, but he says others may be hesitant to start having these conversations about racial strife and misundertanding. “For some it sounds 1960s-ish,” Caldwell said. “Some folk are inclined to think, ‘We’re beyond that, we’re past that. We’ve been there. We’ve had those conversations.’ Guess what? We obviously need to have more of them.”
As a father to two African-American sons, Caldwell says those conversations regarding race and policing also can turn personal. He remembers feeling worried about one of his sons going out with friends earlier this summer, during the week of July when Dallas police officers where shot by a gunman.
To deal with his anxiety, he turned to prayer.
“I pray for (my sons),” Caldwell said. “I pray for myself to not have a spirit of fear because I don’t want my sons’ lifestyle to be inhibited by this irrational emotion called fear. We are not going to bow down to that.”
He thinks churches need to do more to address the racial tension.
“Today’s universal church could and should do more because the church is representing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven,” Caldwell said. “When something is out of whack on earth and it’s not lining up what God has ordained for us here on earth, then we should do all we can to reconcile this earthly situation. We’re not doing that.” Connect to faith
Rasmus agrees with Caldwell and hopes that churches continue to be a welcoming place for people to discuss the violence across the country, because he says they haven’t always been.
“People who are connected to faith have not always made themselves available for the tough conversations and have accosted themselves away in a holy huddle,” Rasmus said.
Jackson also notes the tremendous risk law enforcement officers go through.
“Some of the most important people in Scripture are people who took on larger than life roles,” Jackson said. “Because they served something bigger than themselves — there’s no better example of that than law enforcement.”
Jackson believe that compassion is what will bring police officers, African-Americans, and the rest of the community together.
“I hope everyone who’s grappling with what happened digs deeper and listens to their inner voice of compassion and resist the calls of division and hate.”