The statistics for gun violence jump off the page:
40,614 gun violence deaths in the United States this year
919 children under age 12 have been shot
985 teens have been killed
10 million guns flow into the United States every year
As the writer says in Ecclesiastes, “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
“A consideration of stewardship of resources has led to the decision for Presbyterian Voices for Justice to celebrate its history by donating its financial resources to three social justice causes,” said the Rev. Bear Ride, a board member. “We are delighted to be giving a donation of $9,431.35 to each of these: Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Office of Public Witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and to the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon Scholarship Fund.”
More than 260 people spent a remarkable and at times uncomfortable two hours Monday evening in the first of a four-part online series designed to awaken Presbyterians to structural racism.
As the Rev. José González-Colón was preparing his keynote speech for this year’s Peace Breakfast, his drafts were left in tatters by a fast-changing world rocked by protests and a pandemic raging in the midst of climate change.
Divesting from fossil fuels and defunding the police might seem like unrelated causes, but the Rev. abby mohaupt connected them Friday afternoon in the second teach-in of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s Peace Camp.
What’s an activist for social and racial justice to do when a global pandemic turns the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly into an online proceeding with a significantly streamlined agenda?
Answer: Encourage Presbyterians to fight for justice at the grassroots level, including in their own communities.
The Rev. CeCe Armstrong had barely arrived in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015, when a white supremacist opened fire on a Bible study class at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, killing nine people.
One of the surprising headlines, to some people, out of the COVID-19 pandemic is that in addition to toilet paper and hand sanitizer, people have been stocking up on guns.
Guns?
