As Country Reels From Violent Week, Clergies Offer Messages Of Healing
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
After tragedies like the ones we saw last week, the deaths of two black men at the hands of police in St. Paul and Baton Rouge and then the sniper attack that killed five police officers in Dallas, it often falls to religious leaders to try to bring, if not understanding, then at least solace to congregations who are grieving. So that's where we are this hour, and NPR's Cheryl Corley is our guide.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: There's been so much anger, fear and protest over the shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul and the Dallas police officers, that Jacqueline King says we should follow the lead of 18th-century theologian John Wesley. King, pastor of the First United Methodist Church, an all-white church outside of Baton Rouge, says it's time to start looking at our souls.
JACQUELINE KING: To not only look at the individual soul, but the soul of our country and congregation. You know, we are not well at this time. And I think I'm just going to open up in that way very honestly.
CORLEY: At Wesley United Methodist Church, an all-black church in Baton Rouge, Pastor Joe Connelly says there's no question what his sermon will be about today.
JOE CONNELLY: Yeah, it's going to be Alton Sterling in the initial part.
CORLEY: Sterling, an African-American man, was killed Tuesday, shot to death in an encounter with two white Baton Rouge police officers. Rev. Connelly says he wants to be able to help his congregation deal with any rage.
CONNELLY: I don't want them to feel so angry that it leads to a sense of ambivalence. I don't want them to leave so hurt or demoralized that they say the problem is so large that it's hopeless.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) You calm my every moment.
CORLEY: At an interfaith service at Concord Church, a predominantly black megachurch in suburban Dallas, pastor Rev. Bryan Carter says the ambush of the Dallas police officers and the other shootings have made people feel unsafe.
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BRYAN CARTER: Fear can be incredibly crippling. But as people of faith, as believers in Jesus Christ, we understand that when our fear tries to take hold of us, we must look to our faith.
CORLEY: In Falcon Heights, Minn., last Wednesday, Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot black motorist Philando Castile. The pastor at Falcon Heights Church, Rev. Anne Swallow Gillis, led a service for the United Church of Christ congregation last night. There was no sermon. Instead, a program of song and prayers.
ANNE SWALLOW GILLIS: We felt it was really important to do something for the community, not about healing. We're simply about naming the wounds, acknowledging the divisions and the brokenness.
CORLEY: The sun and clear skies yesterday brought Jered Weber-Johnson, his wife and their two young sons outside to deal with a backyard full of flowers.
JERED WEBER-JOHNSON: We were not gardening people before we moved here.
CORLEY: An Episcopal priest priest and rector at St. John the Evangelist in St. Paul, he says the death of Philando Castile was personal for many in his congregation. Some knew him, or their children did. Weber-Johnson says Castile's death brought issues of race, injustice and police to the front door of a mostly white community that he says often ignores them.
WEBER-JOHNSON: The kindest and nicest of Minnesotans may have empathy but not have to get involved because it didn't come to our backyard. And unfortunately, it took coming to our backyard for so many to get angry.
CORLEY: So today, says Weber-Johnson, he committed, like other religious leaders did, to talk about the good Samaritan who helps a man who's been beaten and robbed, a parable told by Jesus that calls for people to love even their enemy.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Singing) The love of Jesus Christ...
CORLEY: The children's choir is rehearsing at Zion Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Pastor Brian Herron says he'll make a statement today about hope and healing and believes the good Samaritan message is so appropriate for the times.
BRIAN HERRON: We have to care about one another. We have to care about those who are living on the margins of life. We have to care about those who are filled with hate and anger, and we have to reach for them. And we have to pray for them.
CORLEY: Herron says he'll tell his congregation that to overcome the trauma that seems to just keep coming, they all have to be very intentional about healing and to do what he calls soul care. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, St. Paul.
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