Rhetoric Race and Religion
It was too much to resist: the media lure of prominent clergy members like the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson visiting Ferguson, Missouri,a moment about to become a movement. But real change to the conditions they went there to highlight and decry – real movement – can only come from local organizers, like the St Louis Clergy Coalition. That coalition has been instrumental, though less talked about on the news, by walking the streets of Ferguson two weeks of protests, by organizing prayer services for its people.
And, like their parishioners, some have even been shot at and teargassed by the police for the peaceful expression of their civil rights. This is a religious organizing moment reminiscent of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. This is a representative moment of the religious left reminiscent of little we have ever seen before.
The St Louis Clergy Coalition have collaborated with an outside clergy organization, Pico, the nationwide network of faith-based community organizations. Pico itself rallied around Ferguson and its residents to provide services in the wake of the extensive police crackdown, to tend a grieving community after the killing of Michael Brown and to provide support overworked pastors trying to help their parishioners process the intense police presence – and their anger.
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