How Faith Leaders Are Grappling With The Violence Of This Week

"Blood is crying from the ground and let it trouble the very soul of America until justice is a clear reality."

While people across the U.S. have struggled to comprehend the racism and senseless violence that has been so evident across the country this week, religious leaders have once again found themselves called to prayer and righteous anger.

Police fatally shot two black men this week โ€• Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Then on Thursday night, a sniper in Dallas opened fire on a peaceful protest against police brutality, killing five police officers.

โ€œWe have been swept up in the escalating circle of violence that has now touched us intimately, as it has others throughout our country and the world,โ€ Dallas-based Bishop Kevin J. Farrell wrote on Facebook Friday.

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Rev. Traci Blackmon, a pastor based near Ferguson, Missouri, shared the above in a statement on Friday.

โ€œDear Lord today please protect black men who are driving, selling, walking, riding bikes, working or just breathing,โ€ Jamal Bryant, a pastor in Baltimore, wrote on Facebook early Thursday.

Like Bryant, many black faith leaders used their platforms this week to remind people that it is inherently dangerous to have dark skin and live in the U.S. Police apprehended both Sterling and Castile, like too many other black men before them, for harmless โ€œoffenses.โ€ Sterling was selling CDs outside of a convenience store. Castile was pulled over for having a broken tail light.

โ€œBeing black and conscious is to live with tears, terror and rage,โ€ Chicago pastor Otis Moss III posted on Facebook.

โ€œI think sometimes as black people in America, weโ€™re walking ink blots,โ€ Rev. Bryan Massingale told American magazine on Thursday. โ€œWeโ€™re walking Rorschach tests upon which the majority project their fears and anxieties, and now, yes, here we are again because we as a nation refuse to learn.โ€

Rev. Jacqueline Lewis called racism a โ€œsinโ€ in a Huffington Post blog post.

โ€œThis hatred of Black flesh so deeply imbedded in our culture,โ€ she wrote. โ€œIt must be addressed for the sickness and sin it is.โ€

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โ€œBlood is crying from the ground and let it trouble the very soul of America until justice is a clear reality,โ€ echoed Rev. William Barber II.

Some white religious leaders turned inward to acknowledge their privilege and practice what they preach.

โ€œThe fact of the matter is that we as white people, weโ€™ve got to accept our actions, we have to accept our role in this,โ€ Savanna Hartman, a pastor from Tampa, Florida, said in an emotional statement and spoken-word poem.

Hartman also criticized people who put blame on victims of police brutality, and directed white Christians back to the heart of their faith.

โ€œStop blaming them like their deaths were deserved,โ€ she said. โ€œWe all deserve death but our lives were preserved by Christโ€™s work on the cross. He paid for our sins so we donโ€™t have to make mistakes again and again.โ€

In an article responding to this weekโ€™s โ€œspiral of violence,โ€ Jesuit priest James Martin encouraged people to pray but also to โ€œdo a moral inventory on oneself.โ€

โ€œHow do I contribute to peace and justice in this world?โ€ Martin suggested people ask themselves. โ€œHow to I contribute to violence and racism? How must I be changed?โ€

Rev. Paul Raushenbush took to the streets of New York City with hundreds of other protestors who raised their voices to proclaim that โ€œblack lives matter.โ€

โ€œIt is a confession of the hierarchy that white supremacy has imposed upon humanity that stands in direct opposition of the truth that all are made in Godโ€™s image and equally worth of dignity and respect,โ€ Raushenbush wrote on Facebook. Raushenbush is the former executive religion editor at The Huffington Post.

Starhawk, a longtime social justice activist and pagan leader, also took to Facebook to express frustration and grief.

โ€œWhenever we dehumanize people, demonize them as a class, refuse to see their individuality, we open the door to violence,โ€ she wrote, addressing the shootings of Sterling and Castile, as well as the subsequent attack on police officers in Dallas.

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Raphael Warnock, pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.โ€™s former congregation, Ebenezer Baptist Church, shared the above message on his Facebook page on Friday.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, shared a statement on Twitter echoing Warnockโ€™s call to โ€œresist the darkness.โ€

โ€œTo all people of good will, let us beg for the strength to resist the hatred that blinds us to our common humanity,โ€ Kurtz wrote.

Perhaps no amount of faith can explain why certain atrocities occur or even prescribe a path forward for healing. But Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, who played a prominent role among clergy protestors in Ferguson, offered a beautiful hymn of hope on Twitter, encouraging those in mourning to โ€œhold on just a little while longer.โ€

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