Anti-Religious Hate strikes Mosque, Church, and Synagogue during these Holy Seasons.
- Mosque mass Shootings last month in Christchurch, New Zealand with a hundred casualties (including 50 deaths).
- Easter mass Bombings of Churches (Catholic and Protestant) in Sri Lanka, with hundreds of casualties (including 75 deaths).
- Passover Shooting in southern California at Chabad Synagogue of Poway with four casualties (including 1 death).
Hatred against Religions, hatred against communities different than one’s own, hatred against human lives. These are not inexplicable events of fate. We know that Hate harnesses social media and deploys weapons fit only for warfare to bring about these horrors. And such hate is now fostered by hate speech from the top by world leaders everywhere, including some of our own.
The communities I work with–Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Historically Black Theological Institutions, Muslim, and Jewish–stand in solidarity against such religious hatred and the attacks on houses of prayer worldwide. We will not be divided by hate, but will unite more deeply in the faithfulness and justice of God and the love that God calls all of us to embody.