Juneteenth is a Chance to Rethink Our Gun Culture

Christians should work together to address our nation’s hate-motivated gun violence.

On May 14, I joined a group of pastors from Brooklyn leading a march through Chinatown, Manhattan.

I’m a member of the 67th Precinct Clergy Council—also known as the “GodSquad”—which has long worked to prevent gun violence in our neighborhood of East Flatbush through street engagement, education, leadership training, neighborhood organizing, targeted interventions, victim services, and more.

That day’s march was focused on standing in solidarity against hate and racism toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, while acknowledging the discrimination that flows in multiple directions through our neighborhood’s ethnic and religious communities. We wanted to make it clear that it was both un-Christian and un-American to engage in racist hatred.

While we were marching, we found out that a white nationalist had shot 13 people—10 fatally—at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

This was an act of hatred and cowardice by a man with an irrational fear of the “great replacement,” who reacted in violence against the Black community of a city 200 miles away from his own hometown. This has scarred the Black community of Buffalo and of the United States in ways that will require deep healing, accompanied with a great cry for justice.

More than that, this has scarred the churches in Buffalo. Heyward Patterson, 67, was a deacon and singer at his church. Pearl Young, 77, went to the supermarket right after a prayer breakfast that Saturday morning. Other victims had deep roots in churches and communities, and now these social havens will be in an ongoing state of grief.

After the mass murder in Buffalo, our country experienced another act of nationalistic ...