A Vision and a Challenge from Karen Delahunty
Founding Member and Steering Committee member
Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle
Today was a day like no other. Amidst all the pain, the rage, and the sadness, people of faith took to the streets. Three hundred plus members of the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Temple Beth Or and other faith communities created a human line of solidarity from Pullen to the State Capitol. Each person held a sign with the name of someone killed/murdered by the police or a white supremacy vigilante. Many signs read “Black Lives Matter,” or “Unity begins with U,” or “No justice, No peace.”
We stood for one hour. We stood as cars drove by honking their horns in solidarity. There was one car that broke open the watershed of tears for me—it was a young black man, who drove slowly by saying “Thank you” and touching his heart. He went slowly, as if trying to thank each one of us individually.
I kept thinking what if each of the faith communities in the Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle network lined the streets where their faith community resides…with the same format, each community taking a different day for the next month…. What if the members of these communities could feel their hearts break open from carrying the Sin of racism over generations…? What if we began to sit within our communities and come to understand the systemic racism and oppression woven into so many layers of our cultural fabric…? What if…? What if…?
I know this request is not solely geared toward Creation. But oppression and domination are at the core of our western psyche. And it doesn’t only assail our relationships with other humans but also our relationships with the nonhuman world.
See the WRAL news report and video: In Raleigh, Human Chain Bears Witness with Silence, Signs, Solidarity with Protestors
CALL TO ACTION: Share your congregation’s initiatives to fight racism. If you would like to share the story of what your congregation is doing to fight racism, we would like to include it on the ICCT website. Please send your story to ICCTriangle@gmail.com.
CALL TO ACTION: Begin or expand an initiative to fight racism at your faith community. If you would like to talk with someone at ICCT about how you can work with your faith community to develop a powerful response to systemic racism, please contact us at the same email address.
