MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
Jim Wallis
Robert Jeffress warned of a possible "Civil War-like fracture" if President Donald Trump is ousted from office.
While I am no legal expert on the details of the court decision yesterday or whether the charges against him and each of the other officers were carefully made or effectively prosecuted, nor a spiritual expert on the officers' motives, nor an administrative expert on Baltimore police training, one fact continues to remain clear: No one has yet to be held accountable for the death of Freddie Gray who was alive and well before being detained and put into that police wagon. That same fact still applies to almost ALL of the young African-American men and women who have been shot or choked or beaten to death by police or who have died in police custody --despite all the publicity about these police crimes. And that is why there is so little trust in communities of color for the police that are supposed to serve them and keep them safe.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Since all the political news is terrible and only getting worse, I decided to reflect on something very personal this week -- about a great event that happened this weekend.
I'm not sure Donald Trump has the personal conviction to be a racist. He just sells racism -- and that's worse. Trump's racial, religious, and gender bigotry will lose him many religious Americans, including those whom the media has often called "values voters."
His critics always accused him of disorderliness, disruption, creating drama, and causing discomfort -- all of which were true. That's because he was not only a priest and a poet -- Daniel Berrigan was a prophet.
The press is concerned with polls and primaries, numbers of delegates, and the reporter's hopes for exciting contested conventions. But many faith leaders are concerned with the moral quality of our national discourse -- how much fear, division, and even hate are dominating over trust, compassion, and even love.
From Ferguson, Missouri, to Charleston, South Carolina, communities are suffering the lethal consequences of our collective silence about racial injustice. The church should be a source of truth in a nation that has lost its way. As the dominant religion in the United States, Christianity is directly implicated when we Christians fail to speak more honestly about the legacy of racial inequality.
Jim Wallis's heart may be in the right place. But he is woefully, dangerously ill-informed on what comprehensive immigration reform actually is.
