As survivors gathered Tuesday, they invited another congregation that knows the pain of murderous hatred to join them: members of the Tree of Life synagogue.
Across the country, faith groups are gearing up for Juneteenth celebrations that weave spirituality and history.
‘May your will be done, and may this bill be killed,’ said the Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, general minister and president of the Disciples of Christ.
‘You have done a marvelous job of grasping the underlying truth and philosophy of the movement,’ the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to the creator of a comic book about civil rights.
‘We are honest about the conditions that we're facing, but we are not hopeless about what we're facing,' said Bishop W. Darin Moore of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
The fire severely damaged Clayborn Temple, which served as the headquarters for the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike that brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the city.
‘Faith leaders have been at the forefront of every progressive movement in our nation’s history … so I’m glad to see faith leaders speaking out and getting into good trouble in opposition to the upcoming reconciliation bill,’ Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told RNS.
Some reports suggest Target has seen decreases in foot traffic during the same period as the boycotts.
In a March 27 executive order, Trump alleged that Smithsonian exhibits had disparaged the nation's history via a ‘divisive, race-centered ideology.’
‘I think most of the major Black denominations, in terms of its membership, is divided,’ said Bishop Reginald Jackson, leader of mid-Atlantic African Methodist Episcopal churches.