On May 14, I joined a group of pastors from Brooklyn leading a march through Chinatown, Manhattan.

I am a member of the 67th Precinct Clergy Council – also known as “GodSquad” – which has a long history of working to prevent gun violence in our East Flatbush neighborhood through street engagement, education, training in leadership, neighborhood organization, targeted interventions, victim services, and more.

The march that day focused on solidarity against hatred and racism towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, while acknowledging the discrimination that flows in multiple directions through the ethnic and religious communities of our neighborhood. We wanted to make it clear that it was both un-Christian and un-American to engage in racist hatred.

As we walked, we discovered that a white nationalist had shot 13 people – 10 fatally – in a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo.

It was an act of hate and cowardice by a man with an irrational fear of the “great substitute”, who reacted violently against the black community in a town 200 miles from his own hometown. It has scarred the black community of Buffalo and the United States in a way that will require deep healing, accompanied by a loud cry for justice.

More than that, it marked the churches of Buffalo. Heyward Patterson, 67, was a deacon and singer in his church. Pearl Young, 77, went to the supermarket straight after a prayer breakfast on Saturday morning. Other victims had deep roots in churches and communities, and now these social refuges will be in a permanent state of mourning.

After the Buffalo Massacre, our country saw another act of nationalist violence against a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, California; a horrific massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; a deranged attack at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and a series of other tragic shooting incidents.

Our country is increasingly drowning in gun violence – in everything including suicide, interpersonal violence and mass shootings. As Charlie Dates noted in his recent article for CT, gun violence is now the leading cause of child death in this country. And while not all gun violence is racially motivated, too often it is.

In recent years we have witnessed the racist mass shootings of the Asian community in Atlanta, the Latino community in El Paso and the Jewish community in Pittsburgh. A racially motivated hate crime was also at the heart of the vigilante violence perpetrated against Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in 2020. Black Americans are killed by police at a much higher rate than white Americans, and many cases of Unarmed shootings go unanswered by authorities.

Juneteenth is a national holiday celebrating the actual liberation of our nation’s last enslaved black population from the oppression of slavery in Texas, nearly two years after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation.

As such, this day is a unique opportunity to reevaluate our nation’s relationship with guns and the hate-motivated violence it enables, which disproportionately affects our black population.

We should all seek to be empathetic to the needs of Buffalo’s black community and open to listening to our black and brown neighbors across the country. Various geographic communities may react differently to the shootings — and yet there is near-universal pain and cynicism about this attack and others like it — based on centuries of violence against black people in America.

This cause is personal to me, having suffered the loss of a family member to gun violence in my native Jamaica. And given my current capacity as a youth pastor in a community destroyed by gun violence, I was molded for this work and my commitment to it is unwavering. My fervent hope is to see an end to gun violence.

I believe that people of all faiths and races need to see these horrific and senseless acts of hatred and discrimination as a call to both prayer and action – to do our part to end this pattern of death.

As Christians, we respond first with prayer. Through dialogue with God, we can share our pain with our Father and deal with the anger that arises when we are hurt and grieving. We must be consistent in prayer, day in and day out, so that our righteous indignation will be led to change ourselves and our communities to advance the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Prayer moves the hand of God, and I believe that with persistent prayer He will give us a heavy burden of mission Dei—to share the passion of Christ for the disadvantaged, underserved and marginalized. It has many different aspects, but we all need to work to hear and heed his call in our lives. Like his outstretched hands and feet, we are called to save those who are perishing and save them from the flaming arrows of evil that invade our society.

Another aspect of our Christian responsibility is that we act through legislation.

The voice of ecclesia, the “called” is powerful and we can call for real change. It is obvious that Christians may disagree on the best policies, but we must play our part in advancing well-being and promoting life and health for all. Some of us may be called to deep engagement with local leaders and politicians at the highest levels, where we can bring a needed Christian perspective to the issues facing our communities.

To my white brothers and sisters, I take this painful opportunity to ask you to join us in the fight against racism and extremism. Weapons in the hands of hateful people are destroying America.

While much gun violence is based on common crime, there is a growing number of white supremacists who are willing to use violence or threats for ethnic intimidation (in the case of the shooter in Buffalo) or for other political reasons.

In addition to the previously mentioned racist mass shootings, white supremacists have gathered violently and openly in several places over the past few years. And while the violence in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017 received the most attention, white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups have carried guns in a series of protests in 2020 and 2021, implicitly threatening their use. for political purposes.

This is contrary to the message of the Cross and we must confront it wherever it exists in our own communities. The voices of white allies are also needed in the conversation when it comes to fighting white supremacy.

Gun culture in rural America and East Flatbush in Brooklyn may look different, but they share real similarities. In either case, angry people who feel the system is failing them use gun violence to lash out and attempt to seize power or, as in the case of the Uvalde shooter, inflict pain on others without discernment.

Suicide by firearm and other desperate deaths are destroying rural and suburban America, while interpersonal gun violence is wreaking havoc in our cities – and both call for our action.

The Senate is currently in the process of accepting an appointment for the post of Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF has been without a Senate-confirmed director for nearly a decade, with the Senate failing to act on nominees from each of the past two administrations.

This office plays an important role in tracing firearms used in crimes, and the current nominee’s track record includes work prosecuting hate crimes, including attacks on a predominantly black church in Conneaut, Ohio, and a mosque in Toledo; and a plot to attack black synagogues and churches in Detroit.

Some of us Christians may be called upon to respond to this crisis with practical and personal help. The Buffalo attack highlights the fragility of the supply of services in black communities: with the supermarket that was the scene of the shooting now closed, the neighborhood has quickly become a food desert. While those of us who do not live near Buffalo may not be able to fill this service gap, we should all consider the needs of those less fortunate in our community.

We should also examine how our communities, both at the local government level and in places of worship, care for widows and orphans, especially those who are widowed and orphaned by senseless violence.

When it comes to gun reform, we have to ask ourselves if we really care about young people in a way that prevents the cycle from continuing. This Juneteenth, I hope to see a plurality of voices speak out with a singular purpose – with purpose, purpose, mission – to find a cure for our nation’s “gundemic” and especially to liberate black communities from its terrorizing grip.

When gun violence makes national headlines and shakes local communities, all Christians have a moral duty to respond. And I’m glad that more than 800 faith leaders across the country have signed a letter calling for congressional action on gun violence.

Our message of justice, hope, reconciliation and redemption can bring the peace that is missing. The Prince of Peace himself can bring peace to hearts that are troubled enough to commit such heinous violence, and to communities broken by it.

The Church’s messages of love, hope, salvation and redemption must prevail over global messages of hatred, prejudice, discrimination and alienation. We are the bearers of the message and we must work to spread it.

Love always wins – we know that as believers. The book of Revelation tells us that one day there will be an ultimate reconciliation of man to man and of all mankind to God. But on this side of the sky, we have a lot of work to do.

Edward-Richard Hinds is the youth pastor of Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York. Hinds is a skilled counselor and mentor who serves his community as Chairman of the 67th Borough Council of Clergy (“The GodSquad”).