“Hard times call for hard conversations”

After recording our worship service on Sunday, I found myself at the Middlesex Black Lives Matter March for Justice in Saluda. I say “found myself” because that was not how I intended to spend the afternoon. In fact, I did not even know that a march was scheduled. I went to the march less out of felt conviction than because I was invited by some of my church members. I am now glad for the interruption and invitation.

Last week I also received an invitation to be a part of a Middlesex clergy conversation about these “very troubled times in our country.” It took me a couple days to decide that I need to participate in this conversation about racial inequities and injustice that is once again emerging in our nation and that demands Christian leadership.

These are hard times to be an American. The COVID-19 shutdown has had many of us quarantined for months. And now the daily news is flooded with justified protests and violent chaos in our major cities following the brutal killing of George Floyd by a white police officer.

This is not what we planned…