“As Birmingham, Alabama becomes the next city facing the aftermath of a mass shooting, we once again are faced with the call to make prayer an outward movement as well as an inner one. In one interview, a investigator replied that this had more to do with community than criminality, that too many arguments were being addressed through gunfire.
This week the Council of Bishops released a pastoral letter calling on us to become an antidote to extremism. The deep divisiveness and polarization across the US feeds the violent response to disagreements and differences. As those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace, we are called on to assess how we do that, from our smallest interactions with one another to how we engage as a people in the larger world. Our prayers for the transformation of violence begins within each one of us and then must shape the work we are doing in the world through tangible actions.
This is not the way it has to be. A new way begins when we intentionally begin to manifest it in our priorities and responses. May we have the courage to begin.”
Click here to read the letter from the United Methodist Council of Bishops.