Weeping for the Cities of El Paso and Dayton

Perspectives

August 4, 2019

“As Jesus came to the city and observed it, he wept over it. He said, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that lead to peace,” Luke 19: 41-42a

It was Sunday morning. I had traveled to Philadelphia to be present at the meeting of MARCHA (Metodistas Representando la Causa de los Hispanos Americanos). The night before this group of Methodists talked about values that would guide them as they grapple with what is next for our denomination. Some of those values were:

  • Diversity as a gift from God.
  • The dignity and sacred worth of all of creation.
  • Racism as incompatible with Christian teaching.

In the midst of this conversation we heard that in El Paso, Texas a gunman, bent on hatred against immigrants and people of color, opened fire at a Walmart while people shopped for back-to-school supplies. Twenty people were killed and 26 injured. Some of the dead and injured were children. Authorities found a white-nationalist manifesto on-line that they believe came from the gunman. It decried a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Just hours later on Sunday morning, a gunman opened fire at a pub in Dayton, Ohio. We don’t yet know the motive. But, we do know that nine more are dead and dozens wounded. Two mass shootings in one 24-hour period, three in one week, 251 this year alone in the United States. White supremist ideologies and hate crimes on the rise. And so many families and friends of victims--so many members of our communities weeping.

I imagine that God is weeping too. I am sure that God’s heart breaks over our numbness to unprecedented levels of gun violence in the U.S. and the increasingly frequent and unabashed expressions of racial resentment and hate.

What are we as people of faith to do? We can pray for the victims and their families. But our thoughts and prayers are not enough. We must actively resist hate. We cannot continue to be numb to violence or to passively ignore racism and xenophobia. We must proclaim the very values that MARCHA affirmed.

Diversity is a gift of God because we, in all of our diversity, are made in the image of God. God’s image is reflected in the diversity of the human family.  We must celebrate our diversity, because all people are of sacred worth. Indeed, all of creation is of sacred worth. No one type of person is better than another or more deserving of life. We are called to celebrate the sacredness of all of God’s children.

Racism, xenophobia, and hatred of any kind are incompatible with the life and teachings of Jesus—the Jesus who called us to love our neighbors as ourselves and said that the world would know us by our love. We are called as United Methodists and as Christians to engage in concrete acts of love.

I believe that such love is first expressed in weeping. Weeping means that we allow the reality of a tragedy like we have experienced in the last few days to really touch us. We are no longer numb. And shaken out of our numbness, perhaps we are more likely to act. Perhaps we are more likely to say something the next time we hear a racist comment. Perhaps we are more likely to stand up for someone who is experiencing discrimination or exclusion. 

Let us weep for the cities of El Paso and Dayton and for all of those who are impacted by violence. And let us weep, as Jesus did, for all of those who do not know the things that make for peace.

The Rev. Kenneatha J. Bigham-Tsai is the top executive of the Connectional Table, the United Methodist program coordinating agency. This post is republished from UMC.org.