Religious leaders should take a bigger role in bringing the change the nation needs

As I walked to the protest sponsored by Black Youth Project in downtown Durham Monday evening, I felt the weight of the moment. America will never be the same after this.

I brought with me a bundle of nerves in case we were met with an aggressive police presence, but when I arrived at the Carolina Theater, I saw almost no police. A crowd of mostly 18- to 40-year-olds held signs and gathered peacefully waiting for the organizers to start.

However, a small group stood across the street in the shadow of the parking lot carrying a wooden cross and a loudspeaker system. The man on the microphone was engaging in “street preaching” proclaiming an evangelical message of salvation next to a poster board sign with the words “Know Peace, Know Christ.”

It was then that it dawned on me just how the American church, as a whole, was disconnected from this particular moment in the nation.

In more recent years, white evangelicals have dominated the public square in their association with President Donald Trump. Trump famously received 81% of their support in the 2016 election.

On the other hand, progressives have decried the mainline Protestant denominations and their slowness in engaging the politics of the day. Criticism was leveled at predominantly African American congregations for their paltry showing during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2014 and into 2015.

When the street preacher continued his amplified message as the rally began, the singular person wearing a stole walked across the street to tell him to end his jeremiad. He did not stop. Another walked across and the situation grew confrontational. Eventually a small crowd marched across the street and shouted him down with larger crowd chorusing “BLACK LIVES MATTER!” in support. The man finally stopped.

As this nation navigates the next moment, it is abundantly clear that in order to form a more perfect union, we, the people, need our religious institutions to be intact and report for duty.

Religious institutions have the power to do what policy cannot: change the hearts and minds of its citizens.

Weekly, millions of citizens attend some sort of church, synagogue, mosque or temple. The words shared from dais’ nationwide undergird and influence the personal ethics of administrative assistants, program managers, engineers, construction workers and all manner of essential workers. Those words have the power to influence the policy decisions we need to be the change this country needs. We cannot afford to have those messages detached from protests against police brutality, anti-blackness and the evils of capitalism.

In the shadow of Pentecost Sunday, the day on the Christian calendar that celebrates the grassroots organization of the Church as we known it, I can’t help but pay attention to the little fires everywhere burning across this nation. The moment has arrived in which no one can ignore the need to rebuild and repair the crumbling foundation of this democracy.

Much like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the election of the first black president, this moment in which we are living has altered the course of history. Which direction we choose to travel has yet to be determined.