Crisis prompts anguished talks in faith communities
The question put forward by the hosts at the Christian radio station WORD-FM on a recent broadcast was a simple one:
What has been your experience with racism?
African American callers told of unjustified arrests, of hostile treatment by police and others. One man told of an incident years ago in which he was using a payphone near an abandoned building when he was suddenly swarmed by police. He allowed them to search his car, and when they only found his Bible, he said they let him go with a lukewarm apology, saying, “You just can’t be too careful.”
Kathy Emmons, co-host of the program, “The Ride Home with John and Kathy,” asked the caller if he was surprised at all by news of George Floyd’s death beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee.
No, the caller said, nor was he surprised by other recent racial incidents that have stoked some of the biggest protests and civic unrest in decades.
The caller said when he tries to explain these situations to white people, they reply,“‘Oh, no, you must have done something wrong.’ You almost grow numb to it.”
Co-host John Hall replied:“That’s what we have to fight, fight the numbness.”
In religious communities throughout Pittsburgh, people are having similar anguished discussions.
“What you’ve seen recently that was caught on camera, that has always been America,” said the Rev. Ross Owens, administrative pastor at Allegheny Center Alliance Church, in a video panel discussion on race posted by the large, multicultural evangelical church on the North Side. African Americans, he said, “were beaten, we were raped, we were kidnapped, we were robbed of our names, robbed of our religion, robbed of everything we had as human beings . ... We have never had it good here.”
He also acknowledged being“tired of the conversations, tired of the arguments to help people understand,” but vowed to keep trying, saying he believed his Christian faith requires confronting sins of racism.“I am in pain. But for those of you who feel the same way or even worse, don’t give up the fight.”
Some clergy members have been organizing or appearing at demonstrations against racial injustice.
At a clergy-organized rally June 1 at Freedom Corner in the Hill District, Rabbi James Gibson lamented the need to return so many times to that civil rights landmark.
“I am humbled and aghast that we are gathered here today again to raise our voices against injustice, violence and murder against our African American sisters and brothers,” said Rabbi Gibson, of Temple Sinai in Squirrel Hill. “We have gathered here so many times. We are tired, we are angry, we are frustrated beyond
words at police violence against men of color in our region . ... We’re told keep calm, we’ll solve this together . ... We need a loud clear voice to rouse us, not to calm us.”
The Rev. Brian Edmonds of Macedonia Church in the Hill District added: “To my white brothers and sisters, I need you all … to help change the narrative. We need to you to be more than just physically here. We need you to be in the spaces where we are not,” speaking out on racial justice in corridors of power, “so that we won’t experience trauma on top of trauma.”
On June 3, hundreds of people filled the sidewalks surrounding the block-wide East Liberty Presbyterian Church in a mid-day vigil calling for racial justice and an end to discrimination by police and other institutions.
“We’re here to say as people of faith that people of color matter,“said Lenore Williams, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, which helped organize the vigil. “We recognize the fact that all police officers are not the problem. We’d like to emphasize the need of those police officers that support the cause to speak up. The blue code should not matter to them. We’re talking about the lives of innocent people.”
Among those attending was the Rev. Liddy Barlow, executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, an umbrella group of area Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominational leaders.
“There’s an immediate response like we’ve seen over the past couple of days,” she said, but she said that would be followed by quieter, long-term work that “gets to policy change and that gets to the continued efforts at justice and reconciliation.”
Religion became a central part of the story in Washington when, on June 1, law-enforcement personnel used tear gas and aggressively pushed back protesters near the White House, clearing a path so President Donald Trump could walk to nearby St. John Episcopal Church, which had incurred some damage from a fire set during unrest the previous night. Mr. Trump held a Bible for the cameras.
Episcopal leaders reacted with outrage.
He used “violent means to be escorted across the park into the church,” Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde told NPR.“He used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything [taught by] the person of Jesus, whom we follow.”
Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington issued a blistering criticism of the president’s visit to a Catholic shrine the next day: “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.”
Even without those events in Washington, the impact of the crisis is reaching into houses of worship.
Some, like Allegheny Center Alliance Church, are holding video discussions on race.
At Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside, worshipers added Mr. Floyd’s name to those recited at the mourner’s kaddish during Shabbat services.
Many congregations have issued statements, calling for reforms not only in society but also a candid look at racism in their own traditions.
Pittsburgh Roman Catholic Bishop David Zubik said in a statement: “We have been confronted again with a number of ugly issues, perhaps the most notable of all the sin of racism. This is truly a time for us to recognize the effects of that sin, which are stunningly evident in our streets and in our news stories. It is equally important for us to search our hearts to see if that sin is within us.”
On the WORD-FM radio program, the hosts interviewed the Rev. Paul Roberts, pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church, a multicultural congregation in East Liberty.
“The church is in just deep pain now,” he said.“We need to change, and it’s the white culture that needs to change. … We’re the ones with the sickness, we’re the one with the disease of racism. We’ve got to admit that and say we want to repent and we want to change.“
And the Rev. Terry Timm of Christ Community Church of the South Hills said on a recent Sunday, when Christians celebrated the feast of Pentecost, he preached on its origins as a Jewish harvest festival. The Hebrew scriptures prescribing the festival included an injunction not to hoard the harvest but to leave some for the poor and foreigners.
“God says we’ve got to stand with the oppressed and vulnerable,” he said. “That’s the way we practice a true Pentecost.”