Charlotte black clergy understand anger about George Floyd, but preach peace and solidarity
With the third day of protests underway across Charlotte in response to the police killing of George Floyd, black church leaders preached messages of understanding, peace and solidarity.
As tensions rose, church leaders across Charlotte expressed support for the protesters while also urging them to be peaceful. Many shared feelings of anger and disillusionment but urged protesters not to be destructive.
Pastor Claude Alexander of The Park Church shared his personal feelings about Floyd and other recent deaths as a result of police brutality.
“I understand the anger, disillusionment, despair, outrage and grief. I understand it because I feel it too,” Alexander said.
“I am a black man who knows that every day that I am one drive away, one jog away, one police stop away, one false accusation away from death.”
Yet, he added, protesters must express their anger constructively.
“Your anger is no excuse, no license to destroy anybody’s property and increase the misery index. It is no excuse to destroy a Walmart, a CVS, a Target, a Food Lion, in your own neighborhood and rob those who work there of gainful employment. It gives you no right to invade a police officer’s space and hurl insults and curse them and taunt them.”
Rev. Clifford Jones Sr. of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church described police brutality as a part of a larger tree that is rooted in racism.
“You can get angry, rightfully so. You can have your outrage, rightfully so. But you’ve got to channel it in such a way that we attack the root of the problem... We’ve got to attack the root of the tree. We’ve got to cut the roots and not just be happy to burn a few branches in this city and that city,” Jones said during a live stream of the church’s Sunday service.
Jones had a message for those searching for ways to channel their anger.
“I wanna argue that you’ve got a weapon. You don’t need a permit to carry it concealed… Use your weapon. Vote, ” he said.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Reverend Rodney Sadler, who most recently served as interim pastor of Sardis Baptist Church, reflected on the protests that unfolded in Charlotte. Sadler spoke with the Observer of the destruction that has occurred during protests and connected it to the systematic dehumanization of African-Americans.
“If you see the violence that has taken place, it is horrible. I don’t condone it but I do understand it. When you have people who have watched their lives be accounted as nothing. People that look like them are killed and then no repercussions, no one is held accountable, you should expect that inevitably there’s going to be a response. The response that we see is not out of balance with the offense… Human beings dehumanized will want to express with the most sincere passion of their heart the fullness of their humanity,” Sadler said.
He hopes the protests will prompt systematic change.
“The uprising is a wonderful opportunity for all people that live in the community to come together and to say (that) what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others is wrong and that it will not be tolerated. And we collectively call on all the structures within the community to change so that we don’t see such behavior again,” he said.
He also emphasized the need for all Charlotte residents to unite in demonstrations across the city.
“The protest does not belong to any one group. Everybody in the city of Charlotte should be out there in the streets saying something. Everyone, black, white, rich, poor, young, old, English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Christian, Muslim and Jew. Everybody should be out in the street saying we think something needs to change and we stand together in solidarity for the change that needs to happen.”