Eastminster Church in East Liberty is concerned about the events happening in our community and country. We are equally concerned about the Christian voice that seems to have dominated our media no matter what media source. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, want to communicate our faith perspective.
We, as believers in Jesus, clearly believe that the violence in our communities is unacceptable and cannot be justified by our faith. The police as enforcers of public safety can never be seen as a threat to public safety. The police shooting of Antwon Rose Jr. in the back three times while he is running away, unarmed is unacceptable. It does not matter what crime he has or has not committed. The police are not a jury or a judge to pass judgement on a person. We, as a nation, believe in justice being handled by a trial amongst peers and sentencing by a judge. The action by the police in the Antwon Rose Jr. situation can only lead people to feel that the police are not a part of the solution of public safety but instead they are a part of the problem. Our Christian faith tells us that each person has been created by God, immortal, and is to be treated with respect. We will hope and pray that our community leaders, especially the District Attorney’s office, will prosecute any individual who treats our young, Black men with disrespect and universally sees them as a threat to public safety. We are pleased to see that the District Attorney has acted on this situation. We want to see the officer’s bail revoked. We were distressed at how slow this action was and the lack of concern immediately following the event.
We also want to acknowledge that we are actively concerned about the violence in our community. Jesus loves every person in our community and we find all people to be precious, unique, and sacred. The death culture that surrounds us—that is especially seen in our young people killing each other, needs to be addressed. Silence is giving our young people permission to continue to be violent. We need to have reasonable gun control laws. Violence is an evil we must attack with love, mercy and truth.
We are also appalled with our nation’s policy on immigration. Christianity is a faith which is called upon to be hospitable to those in need, who are struggling, or are being persecuted. The faith was founded by our savior as a people who would feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty and to clothe the naked. We desire for families to be loved, refreshed and cared for. The idea of separating children from their parents who cross into our borders is appalling to us. To see children in cages, handcuffed, no legal representation, no outside contact, being treated like animals, has no place in our faith and should not be allowed in our country. We call on our leaders to make policies that show our love for the downtrodden and our commitment to basic human rights that show the compassion of our nation which is the compassion that Jesus showed in his life and the early church exemplified. We believe the idea of building a wall, separating families, putting people in cages, shows no hospitality and is antithetical to our faith and the teachings of Jesus. We call on our policymakers to develop a policy that does not treat asylum seekers as law-breakers.
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