AME bishops challenge U.S. to stand against racism

By Mason Harrison
what is the best personal loan interest rate Contributing Writer

Black church leaders gathered in New Orleans last week in response to the widely publicized shooting deaths of the “Emanuel Nine” in Charleston, S.C., last month, issuing a nationwide “call to action” to faith leaders, elected officials and policymakers as the country celebrates the Fourth of July holiday.

Organizers are calling the Independence Day weekend Freedom Weekend, and urged Muslim leaders to pray for peace with their congregants on Friday, July 3; rabbis to follow suit on Saturday, July 4; and “Sunday, of course, is the day for us,” said Jackie Dupont-Walker, media director for the outreach campaign.

But beyond prayer, “There are several things we intend to do,” said Bishop Reginald Jackson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. bad credit loans mckinney tx Yet, Jackson said, “We do not intend or try to do it by ourselves.” In early September, A.M.E. leaders will hold a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., “where we will outline specific areas where the nation can act on race,” Jackson said, who leads the social action commission of the A.M.E. Church. “These will include education, mass incarceration, reform of gun laws, poverty, and a number of other areas.” Leaders also plan to present a soon-to-be finalized “list of actions entitled, ‘And Justice for All,’ to the bipartisan congressional leadership.”

Leaders will revisit Freedom Weekend again in September by “declar[ing] Sunday, September 6, as a ‘Day of Confession, Repentance, Prayer, and Commitment to End Racism,’” said Jackson. where to get loans if you have bad credit “We will ask every church, temple, synagogue, mosque and place of worship to focus on race and ask every pastor, Rabbi, Imam, and others to preach on race and be reminded that out of one blood, God created all of us to dwell together in unity,” he said, adding that the church will take its message to 2016 presidential candidates and invite the Republican and Democratic nominees to the group’s bicentennial general conference to address economic and law enforcement disparities that exist along racial lines.

“It’s past time to act on race. We would not continually have Fergusons and Baltimores if it were not for racism.”

This article originally published in the July 6, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.