Special Statement in Worship. The Day after Charlottesville “Unite the Right” Rally. 8/13/2017.
On the Sunday morning after the violent protests in Charlottesville VA, every pastor in the city the state and hopefully the whole country should have been asking themselves the same question. “What am I going to say today about the racial hatred that has just been put on horrifying display for the whole world to see?”
The easiest route is to think and say nothing. To pretend that we do not live in a hyper media world where instant video of hate drenched slogans backed up with torches, rifles and riot gear has not been streamed constantly across our plethora of viewing screens. Many pastors will ignore it completely and choose to stick with their worship plan and to cash their paychecks with a smile as they serve their congregations the exact same spiritual food that they have been accustomed to each week.
Other pastors with big hearts and small courage will watch the news in horror, and renounce the hatred personally only to their closest friends and family. They will agonize over if they should say anything and how to say things so that their congregations will be able to hear it. For these, a mumbled reference to the incident and prayers for the victims while everyone’s heads are safely bowed and eyes are firmly closed is as far as they will ever go to put themselves and their faith on the side of Justice without actually risking anything.
But my friends, neither of these is the way of Jesus. Christ gave up everything, even his life, to spread the message of radical inclusive love to the world. This was love for the prostitutes and eunechs, love for the broken and the poor, and especially love for the foreigners of different color and culture. This was not love and care offered in confidential counseling sessions, but radical love preached in the synagogue and in the town square and to anyone and everyone within earshot. It was the only thing that could save the world.
And so today, in my calling to follow the example of my savior Jesus Christ, I am going to stand up and say that the hatred and the vitriol and the violence demonstrated this weekend in Charlottesville Virginia is wrong. It is Racism. It is Sin. It is the antithesis to everything that Christ and Christianity stands for. And I refuse to be a traitor to my faith which I hold dear and be silent. I refuse to just mumble a few choice words and to pray that it will all just disappear. I choose to live into my faith in these troubled times and to speak loudly against any form of hatred.
Today and every day, I will choose to be a voice for love and inclusion. I choose to work for Christ’s Justice and for peace. Today and every day I will declare, It is Racism. It is sin. It is wrong. I will not be silent. Will you join me?
