Churches Urge Continuing Activism for ‘Justice’ in Ferguson

Churches Urge Continuing Activism for ‘Justice’ in Ferguson

The New York Times is reporting that several Christian churches and pastors in Ferguson intend to keep up pressure for “justice for Michael Brown,” despite the recent grand jury decision that there was not enough evidence to indict a white police officer for the shooting of the teenager in August.

In the piece published on November 30, the Times reported that in Sunday sermons, ministers and their churches vowed to continue the “movement” and to prevent the shooting of Michael Brown from “fading away or being forgotten.”

Many of the messages that emanated from Ferguson’s pulpits were akin to claims, published the same day in a USA Today article, that race relations in America have not changed at all since before the days of the Civil Rights Movement.

For instance, Rev. Shaun Ellison Jones, the assistant pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church-Christian Complex, told the paper that he is “tired of living a certain way in our city.” He added, “I’m tired of some unjust laws.”

Jones noted that his church encourages members to “be engaged in the life of the city.” With that in mind, he urged members to ride a bus to the Missouri state capital in Jefferson City to protest the grand jury decision.

Jones insisted that the problem was “not just one ZIP code,” but that the problem was nationwide.

In another church, an Episcopal cathedral in St. Louis, the Rev. Michael D. Kinman started his Sunday service compelling parishioners to sing the old South African anti-apartheid song, “Oh, Yes, I know, Freedom Is Coming.”

Rev. Kinman, who participated in a protest that shut down a St. Louis shopping mall on Black Friday, claimed that the protests have been “non-violent” despite clear evidence that the city was burned to the ground during renewed rioting last week.

“For nearly four months, we have heard powerful, young, nonviolent demonstrators cry out that black lives matter,” Kinman said from his pulpit. “We have heard terrible stories of the treatment of people of color at the hands of the police, which many of us have had to hold in painful tension with the relationships we have with beloved friends and family who are those police.”

MSNBC TV host Al Sharpton continues to exploit Ferguson, as well. Sharpton was again in the city on Sunday, railing from the pulpit of the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church and saying that the protests in Ferguson were somehow just like a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Ferguson is to this battle what there was in Selma to the voting battle,” Sharpton said. “Every generation must face its battle, and none of it is easy.”

As the unrest in Ferguson wound down for the week, embattled Officer Darren Wilson resigned from his position with the police force. Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson reported that his department has been buried in an avalanche of death threats toward both the department and Wilson.

President Obama has announced that he will be conducting meetings on the rioting at the White House this week.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.

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