Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2020, 12:00pm
Contact: W. B. Allen, (202) 479-2873
Star Parker, President and CEO of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education announced today a national “Pastoral Prayer for America: The Burden of Race and Rage” to be held on Thursday, June 4, at 11:00a.m. The virtual conference will gather 200 pastors to encourage the broadest possible intervention on behalf of national peace and reconciliation.
Reflecting on the sorrows of recent days, Parker said: “I don’t agree that our nation is racist. That mantra is the poison that entrenches resentment and division among us. The daily hunt for racism from top to bottom of our nation’s institutions have institutionalized the perception of racism in the post-Civil Rights Era.
“They have systematically reduced the fundamentals of citizenship to race, in the guise of diversity and inclusion – and these illusive lies have sown increasing distrust and painful social distance in conflict with our reality.
“Most Americans are still cordial to their neighbors, work hand in hand across racial lines, and just want to be left alone.
“They want a government built not on vague notions of fairness but on equal justice under law.
“Moreover, most believe still that the branches of our laws grow from roots in a Constitution ordained by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.”
George Floyd did not die as a black man but as human being, under the protection of American laws, and the mortal assault on him inflicted a deep wound on every American, not just American blacks. People who think it their duty now to express sympathy for black folk must learn how to recognize that the grief is their own and not that of some “other” looking for their generosity.
CURE calls on Americans throughout the world to join us on Thursday in fervent prayer to break the spell of division and the lure of destructive rage.
