Rabbi Lerner and other members of the Network of Spiritual Progressives attended services at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California on Sunday, July 21, a week after the Trayvon Martin verdict. Their intent was to show solidarity with the African American community and share in the deep grief over the unjust verdict.
In this three-part video, Rabbi Lerner decries the verdict as part of a blessing he gives to the church’s youth, while Senior Pastor J. Alfred Smith, Jr. speaks out about up-and-coming filmmaker Ryan Coogler (of Fruitvale Station fame). Pastor Emeritus J. Alfred Smith Sr., his father, outlines a seven-step program to combat racism, and the choir performs a beautiful, gut-wrenching rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”
This footage is courtesy of Allen Temple Baptist Church. It is edited by Ian Hoffman.PART 1 of 3:
PART 2 of 3:
PART 3 of 3:
Dear fellow NSP family members,
Remember we must also reach out in love to George Zimmerman and his family. George’s one minute of madness ended in tragedy, that’s true and we must support Trayvon’s family and every African-American family suffering from or threatened by violence. If we are to get beyond this point, however, we must lead the way and bind up ALL the wounds. The love and compassion for one must not equal hate for the other. If that’s as far as we’ve come, we’ve come nowhere. “It is mercy I want, not sacrifice.”
The only true justice is restorative justice. We can never bring Trayvon back, but we can be better for him, we can be better because of him and whom to be better toward than those who did him the injustice?
Let us continue the hue and cry until we are successful in overturning “Stand Your Ground” type laws! I have heard that currently there are about 21 states with such laws on their books. Such laws are the brainchild of the corporations and legislators who are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). George Zimmerman was not one isolated individual who had a moment of madness disconnected from the larger society; he is caught up in a culture of violence that sets up procedures so that the jury was instructed with reference to the “Stand Your Ground” law and this became a critical piece of information that influenced their decision. The police told George Zimmerman not to follow Trayvon Martin; in other words, they told him not to act like a police officer but he did it anyway. As Pastor Smith, Jr said, the Stand Your Ground laws equal state-sponsored murder and corporate-sponsored public policy formation that sanctions murder. We must end the politics of fear. Fear is so easy to exploit–and does not help us towards being able to use restorative justice to transform such horrible situations and conflict into a better society that is healing the wounds of racism.