Here We Are Again: Responding to White supremacy and white nationalism

I want to take this time to welcome each of you here today. I actually lament we gather like this considering the current climate of our nation. It seems as if there is this desire for us to turn on each other.  There is this cancer, a root of bitterness which is continually spreading throughout the body of our nation and if we are not attentive to the symptoms and offer the appropriate medicine, we are in danger of being consumed. 

August 2014 we gathered to pray and talk. April 2015 we gathered to pray and talk. July 2016 we gathered to pray and talk. Now August 2017 we are once again gathered to pray and talk. The symptoms of violence, hate, indifference, manipulation, anger, and depression seem have shown themselves in the city of Charlottesville this past weekend. People, gathered with antiquated symbols of hatred and vocalized age old slogans of dehumanization in the hopes of galvanizing a new movement of exclusion in America. What saddened me as I watched the images, the videos, and people recounting the murder of Heather Heyer, was the fact that I saw my brothers participating in these acts. My White brothers marched naked in the streets of Charlottesville. Their human dignity which should have been clothed by love and peace was stripped of these young men by hate and violence.  

White Supremacy and White Nationalism has no benefit for those who practice such ideals and those who are the intended victims of its beliefs. White Supremacy is a mental, emotional, and systemic adulterous relationship between false ethnic superiority and misused power.  These ideals and beliefs have no place in our nation because I read somewhere, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." White Supremacy has no place in the Christian faith because I read somewhere, "The Lord of heaven and earth...gives to all mankind life and breath and everything...and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth." So we gather here today not only to grasp a small bit of God's love for ourselves but plead to God to love those who practice the illicit affair of White Supremacy and White Nationalism. We are here to remember Heather Heyer who joins the long list of martyrs for love and peace in regards to racial reconciliation. 

So here we are again. We are here again to discover what it will mean in prayer to love those who are against people of color. We are here again in hopes prayer and talk will become loving action which will transform ourselves bringing about a miraculous cure for our nation.