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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

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A prayer of condemnation, confession and commitment

With concern mounting about crime and gun violence, Memphis City Councilman J B Smiley Jr. organized a city-wide prayer service held at New Salem M.B.C. on Tuesday. The Rev. Dr. Earle J. Fisher offered this prayer:

“Holy God, creator, and sustainer of all life, in this realm and in the realms to come … we come to you today with humble hearts and unholy hands.… We petition your throne of grace and mercy for the will to respond adequately and accurately to the social and spiritual ills that continue to plague us through gun violence and other manifestations of injustice and evil….

“We come to you because we still believe in the power and the privilege of prayer.… We come to you because our ancestors taught us to always pray and not faint….

“We begin our prayer with condemnation.… We condemn these acts of violence, we condemn the evil and heinous nature of the racism and sexism and classism and ageism and xenophobia cultivates this continued cycle of death and demonization.

“We acknowledge that these ways are not your ways … these thoughts are not your thoughts … you do not endorse the inequity in our society…

“We condemn the oppression that relegates too many to poverty and not enough to prosperity. We condemn the proliferation of guns and drugs and the scarcity of good education and well-paying jobs…

“We condemn the spiritual wickedness at work in high places.…

“But not only do we condemn those things … we also confess our sins of slothfulness.… We confess that none of us have clean hands and all our hands have blood on them.… We have sinned by either constructing conditions that cause so much violence … or we have sinned by being too complacent and complicit in doing what is necessary to keep our communities safe.

“We confess we have thought too much about personal privileges and not enough about communal empowerment.… We have allowed white politicians to compromise Black progress … and we’ve allowed Black politicians to cut down Black power.…

“God we are guilty … and we confess.… We’ve thought too much about having church and not enough about helping the community.… We’ve given in to small talk and platitudes.… We’ve watched crime rates go up … and workers’ wages go down … and we thought we could pray it away … or shout it away … or dance it away … or vote it away … or drink it away … or drug it away … or sex it away….

“God we confess our own sin … sins of ego … sins of opportunism … sins of selfishness .… because we recognize all these sins contribute to the social conditions that make us less safe … less structured … and yes, less spiritual.

“But, God … O my God … the God of our elders and ancestors who sustained us … we do not just condemn or confess … but we also commit today … to the types of practices and policies that would cause justice to roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.…

“We commit to the type of civic engagement that can hold our politicians accountable and hold our families together.… We commit to the work of justice and liberation and love.… We commit to constructing a society that ensures your will be done on earth like it is in heaven.… We commit to the type of religion that moves us beyond prayer as a fix-all or a get-out-of-hell-free card or a backstage pass to prosperity.

“We proclaim today … we declare and decree today … that these prayers will prompt and propel us into sustained action … action in the churches … actions in the streets … action on main street … action in city hall and county commission chambers … action in the executive offices … action in the board rooms and even in the back alleys.…

“Actions that make deliverance more accessible than Dracos and determination more accessible than desert eagles … actions that make fresh groceries more accessible than Glocks …  actions that makes opportunity more appealing than opioids … actions that makes Black Power and Black Pride more of a reality than Black Pain and Black Poverty.

“We commit today … right now … to continue the work of righteousness … to the work that bears the imprints of the forerunners for Black freedom.… We commit to the work … not the lip service … not the pomp and circumstance.…

“We commit to the work that makes deaths like Young Dolph’s less likely … and raises up a community of people with a loving commitment to peace, power, and prosperity for all.

“We pray this to the God of our weary years… God of our silent tears … God who has brought us thus far on the way … God who has by your own might … led us into this light … keep us forever in your path … we pray.…

“Ashe and Amen.”

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