‘…cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”  Isaiah 1:17

 It has been an unholy week in the United States of America. Violent shooting deaths defile our core values as Christians and as Americans. We have witnessed the deaths of two black men – Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philandro Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota – and the June 25 death of unarmed teenager Dylan Noble in Fresno, California, along with the targeted slaying of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, including officers Brent Thompson, Michael Krol, and Patrick Zamarripa,  and wounding of nine others, including officers Omar Cannon, Misty McBride, and Jesus Retana, and civilian Shetamia Taylor. The remaining names of the slain and wounded have not been released as of this writing.

These acts of violence intimate anarchy on the one hand, and totalitarianism on the other. All of this has occurred in the week of our nation’s 240^th anniversary. This should challenge us. We are neither the nation we could be, nor the nation God calls us to be.

The brutal killings of Sterling and Castile at the hands of police officers force us, once again, to acknowledge and confront the sins of racism and injustice. There are concrete and meaningful ways to accomplish this, for example, through peaceful demonstrations, participating in community dialogues on race and racism, advocating for changes in policing and our criminal justice system. The clearly planned, intentional targeting of police officers in Dallas, who were doing their duty during just such a meaningful and peaceful demonstration, is abhorrent. Our communities are served by countless law enforcement personnel who are professionals, and who sacrifice safety and security on a regular basis for the sake of others. They merit our gratitude and support.

In Where Do We Go from Here:  Chaos or Community, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the “ultimate weakness of violence,” observing,

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.  Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.  Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.  Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  

The events of this past week underscore great social ills – racism, gun violence, distrust between communities and the law enforcement persons charged to protect those communities. The list goes on and on.

We cannot sit back and hope these troubles will go away. In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes, “putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another” (4:25).

We are members of one another. As Bishop of New Jersey, I am profoundly aware that the people of this diocese are diverse in every way – Black, Latino, Asian, White, African, Middle Eastern, Native American, Caribbean Islanders, poor, rich, urban, rural, suburban, law enforcement, civil servants, government workers, entrepreneurs, homemakers, professionals, laborers, unemployed, clergy, lay, LGBTQ, children, youth, adults, seniors, differently-abled, and more.

In response to the events of this unholy week, I am calling upon the members of the Diocesan Anti-Racism Commission to find new ways of organizing community dialogues that will allow the people of the diocese to share their stories, so that we each might better understand the experiences of others. It is my wish that the commission make a particular effort to generate conversations between law enforcement personnel and the communities they serve. We are so often inundated with noise, we scarcely have opportunity to listen to one another, to tell one another truths, as we experience them, in love.

I also urge you to visit Campaign Zero, a movement dedicated to ending police violence in America, and to read Prayers for Our Life Together, a collection of resources developed for individuals and congregations in the wake of the death of Michael Brown in August 2014.

This Sunday, our Gospel reading will be from Luke 10; the exchange between a lawyer and Jesus. “Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asks Jesus. What a vital question for us all to consider this week. I urge us all to pray for our neighbors who were killed and injured this past unholy week in Baton Rouge, St. Paul and Dallas.  Pray for their families and loved ones who grieve.  Pray for this nation, which is in desperate need of healing and of God’s love. Pray for those whose hearts may be inclined towards violence. Pray for justice and peace. Take action to heal our wounds.

William H. Stokes
12^th Bishop of New Jersey