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 The Rev. Anthony Evans of the National Black Church Initiative leads a demonstration outside the Department of Justice.
July 20th, 2013
08:27 AM ET
White churches uncommonly quiet after Zimmerman verdictBy Jeffrey Weiss, special to CNN (CNN) Even before the jury read their verdict acquitting George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a number of black religious leaders had responses at the ready. The voices of white pastors and predominantly white churches and religious groups? Much harder to find. Nearly a week later, some denominations that often weigh in on matters of national policy have yet to go on the public record. It's particularly notable in the leadership of the Catholic Church, the country's largest religious body. Admittedly, the flood of responses from black religious leaders was a partly a function of where the TV cameras were pointed. Familiar figures such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson hit Twitter moments after the verdict was released. Less familiar figures, such as Pastor Michael McBride, head of the PICO Lifelines to Healing Campaign, immediately issued a call for peaceful demonstrations. McBride had also prepared a tool kit for "Hoodie Sundays" in honor of Martin before Saturday night's verdict. The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, preached a sermon about Martin's death on Sunday. Others took longer to react. National Council of Churches President Kathryn Lohre took a couple of days to release a statement about the “shocking impunity granted by a Florida jury to a man who stalked and killed a black child.” Similarly, the two largest Protestant denominations in America took several days to figure out their responses. By Tuesday, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the first African-American leader of that body, offered a bland quote to his denomination’s official news service. "Some people are upset, angry and frustrated, while others are in full support of the verdict, so where does the church fit in? The church should be there to pray for both families, the city of Sanford, and our nation," said the Rev. Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Russell Moore, head of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, took a stronger stand, saying that regardless of the verdict, Zimmerman was wrong to take “upon himself some sort of vigilante justice.” Several bishops, white and black, from the United Methodist Church rapidly offered their thoughts on the denomination’s website. That included the white bishop for the area that includes Sanford, Florida, where Zimmerman shot Martin. But other organizations where reactions might have been expected still haven’t posted anything. Where’s the response from the Union of Reform Judaism? Where’s a comment from the leaders of the Episcopal Church?** What’s the position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America? Those, however, are religious groups that represent relatively few Americans. The largest claims fewer than 5 million members. The most notable silence is from the American Catholic hierarchy, who head a church that claims to have nearly 70 million members. It’s not necessarily surprising that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has not issued a comment. The conference is large and sometimes moves slowly. But it has committees that can be more nimble. The day after Vermont legalized assisted suicide, for instance, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, warned of a "slippery slope" and urged Catholics to fight the future passage of such laws. But there’s been nothing I can find from any Catholic committees this week. Nothing from Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the conference president. Nothing from the bishops’ Subcommittee on African American Affairs. Nothing from Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, former president of the conference and the first black man to hold the office. In fact, when I searched the web for “Catholic” and “Bishop” and “Trayvon” and “Zimmerman” and “verdict” over the past week, I found only one bishop on the record: Retired Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, now president of the National Black Catholic Congress. And that wasn't until Friday. Ricard told Catholic News Service that it is proper for the church to encourage prayers for Martin and his family and Zimmerman and his family - "his life will never be the same either." He also said that he didn't see a place in the church to foster interracial dialogues to deal with the vastly different understandings of the verdict by many whites and blacks. It’s not as if there isn’t a logical opening for Catholic leaders to offer an opinion. Zimmerman, after all, is a former Catholic altar boy, according to news reports. The official catechism of the church includes a section, 2263, on the right to self-defense. And individual bishops have not been reluctant in the past to speak out on questions of racial justice. I did locate a parish priest who gingerly approached the topic: The Rev. Richard Voor serves at All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford, Florida, where the Trayvon Martin trial was held. On Sunday, the day after the verdict, he focused his homily on the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s a story that turns racial profiling on its head, of course. The hero of the tale, the Samaritan, belonged to a group that was a persecuted minority 2,000 years ago. For several minutes, Voor circled rhetorically around the elephant in the room, talking about compassion and mercy and unpacking the historical understanding of the story. “If somebody does something to us we kind of react and react badly sometimes and then we react back. You know how that goes? It’s called the circle of violence,” he said. “It happens between families, it happens between countries, it happens between groups of people.” Finally, Voor addressed directly the subject his parishioners were surely thinking about: “I would suggest to you, especially what we’ve all been through in Sanford in the past 17 months, that what we need is compassion," the priest said. "Because people are all invested in one way of looking at that whole situation or the other way…this has really affected everybody." Jeffrey Weiss is an award-winning religion reporter in Dallas. ** After this article was posted, an Episcopalian noted that the church's COO, Bishop Stacey Sauls, had a written a blog post about the verdict on July 15. You can read it here.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Its a sad day when our young black men dont have the freedom to walk through certain neighborhoods without being harrased are mudered, no one has the right to just take a life just because of the color of your skin we as a people has to stand up to injustices such as this no one wants to hear the truth there is still a racial devide in America and our justice system create laws so that this kind of injustice can continue to happen rather u want to admit it are not our young black men are the prey.
This is not a racist crime, he should have not trespassed in the trail or park, on private property ,where he did not belong. I know and have lived in black communities.bad ones, been eating and working side by side with people of color. Today everyone has a choice of who I to become. Race does not matter. I have seen more financially put together black folk than white folk my age. Hey what I hate most with anyone whether black, white, women, man, purple, or green. stop being a victim, stop saying look at me, it's cause I'm black. Look the Jews , native Americans, Hungarians, and Irish were all killed, slaves, and persecuted. I never hear them blame their problems on their race or religion. They have prevailed, think strong and prevail. Nobody likes a victim that keeps going into situations they continually mKe themselves victim. Evolution will choose the strongest and best survival. Of all species and races. What happened to Martin is natural selection.
Preachers who use their pulpits who wage a war for civil rights should be defrocked. Jesus told his followers to bring the message of salvation to the world...not to fight for secular "civil rights" that aren't found in the Bible in the first place.
No Christian minster should EVER be advocating human or civil rights in a secular world....those who do clearly and unmistakably reveal themselves to be fraudsters and charlatans. Period. But..."black churches" don't really worry about what's in the Bible anyway.
Clearly you know nothing of the Bible, and/or what Xtianity has been advocating for several centuries.
There can't be 'white churches'. THAT would be 'racist'.
Yep. But there can be "Black Churches."
Just like Paula Deen. Her skin color isn't the correct shade to say the word she did.
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CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
http://www.mudpgi.blog.com
CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
http://www.mudpgi.blog.com
CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
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CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
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there is a lot of problems with the translater of google.
CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
http://www.mudpgi.blog.com
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CASE HUMAN RACE STUDIES IN VENEZUELA, NICOLAS MADURO CITIZEN SELL TO AGENCIE, TO ROB GENETICAL INFORMATION.
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Maybe because white churches aren't race baiters?
Oh no, Baptists have never been race baiters. Not ever
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http://www.mudpgi.com
Venta de venezolanos para estudios de la raza huamana narcotrafico, DE NICOLAS MADURO, EL MINISTRO ABE, JOSIKO NODA, EL REY DE ESPAÑA, ALEMANIA, LA REYNA DE INGLATERRA, EL MINISTRO DE CANADA.
http://www.mudpgi.blog.com
there is a lot of problems with the translater of google.
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Human sale venezuela narcotrafic, NICOLAS MADURO, ABE AND JOSIKO NODAS MINISTER, SPAIN KING, GERMANY, CANADA MINISTER.
http://www.mudpgi.com
Venta de venezolanos para estudios de la raza huamana narcotrafico, DE NICOLAS MADURO, EL MINISTRO ABE, JOSIKO NODA, EL REY DE ESPAÑA, ALEMANIA, LA REYNA DE INGLATERRA, EL MINISTRO DE CANADA.
http://www.mudpgi.blog.com
there is a lot of problems with the translater of google.
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Nothing we can do or say will ever change a black persons mind that its only ok when a black man kills another black man. If the offender is white/hispanic/orange/blue strips with red sparkles then its 1. Wrong 2. Racist 3. Proof that blacks need to retaliate
Please present even a single case of any black person anywhere ever saying that it's ok for a black man to kill another black man. Just one case.
After reading Jeffrey Weiss's piece, White Churches uncommonly quiet after Zimmerman verdict, I was struck by two things: First, how often I recall race being mentioned in CNN pieces I've read covering the death of Trayvon Marton. Second, how seldom I recall race being mentioned in CNN pieces covering the death of little Antonio Santiago. The similarities between the two cases is striking: In the Martin case, a 17 year old African-American male was shot and killed by someone the New York Times described as a white-Hispanic man. In the Santiago case, a 17 year old African-American male shot and killed a 13 month old white-Hispanic baby. So I went on line and picked at random four CNN articles on the Martin killing by the aforementioned Jeffrey Weiss, Tom Foreman, Roxanne Jones and Dana Ford. By my count race was mentioned 55 times. I then found four CNN articles on the baby Santiago killing by Michael Martinez, Tom Watkins, Nick Valencia, Phil Gast and others. Guess what? Race was mentioned zero times...that's zero, zilch, nada.
So I have three questions for CNN's editorial staff: 1) Is race a factor only in crimes when the victim is black? 2) Is Al Sharpton planning a national demonstration to mourn the death of little Antonio Santiago? 3) Where are the president's nationally televised words of comfort for Antonio's inconsolable mother?
Mike Sackett
Discussion of the race issue has nothing to do with who shot who in this story, but with what led Zimmerman to follow Martin in the first place. I have no idea what role race played, but am just pointing out your cases aren't the same.
Race had nothing to do with Zimmerman following Trayvon Martin other than the fact that he and other neighborhood watch volunteers were on the look-out for some kids matching Trayvon's description who had been burglarizing the neighborhood.
If you want to start blaming people for race being a factor...blame the little sh!ts that were robbing people in the first place.
Two points here. First, who really cares what the Church, or any other religious organization thinks about policy? Religions need to get out of politics completely. Not everyone in this country is Christian, nor are they Jeiwish, Muslim or anything else. The U.S. is a mixture of religions, and policy should not be dictated by any single religion.
Second, can people please stop protesting this. None of us know all the facts of the case. Even if you wasted time watching the trial instead of dealing with your own responsibilities in life, not all the information could have been presented. Zimmerman was arrested and tried by a jury of his peers. He was acquitted. Let him be. That is how the system works. Funny how I didn't see these same protesters up in arms when OJ was acquitted. Is Trayvon's life worth more than Nicole Simpson? Or is it simply the color of his skin that dictates the protests. Maybe when these leaders of the African American community look at themselves first, they will realize they are just as racist as they claim others to be.
I thought I would never see the day that i would find a stupid preacher... in the matter of about 5 mins i found several..... >.<
Trayvon be dead. Ghetto be MAD.
lolololololol
as if someone is actively "listening" to them... such a hunk of junk story.