For reasons that are difficult to comprehend, we are currently besieged by images of violence and hate. We continue to grapple with a set of mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., El Paso and Dayton, where a gunman in each of these communities killed innocent people who were just going about their day.
Locally, a violent summer has been punctuated with the deaths of a 9-year-old shot and killed in her home and the son of an elected official in Dallas found dead in the street. Our prayers are with the families of those whose lives were cut short and the communities dealing with the aftermath of grief, pain and sorrow due to their losses.
Two days before the deadly shooting of the young girl, Project Unity hosted an event called Together We Dine for police and gang members at our church to address the uptick in violence. Despite the continued loss of innocent life, it is our faith in God and commitment to community-building that will lead us through this dark moment to a place of healing and liberation.
Earlier this year, former Dallas Bar Association President Rob Crain and I organized a Together We Dine in Austin with a group of state legislators. State Reps. Morgan Meyer and Rhetta Andrews Bowers hosted the dinner, inviting their Republican and Democratic colleagues to engage in conversations about race.
We found that the conversations between legislators were very similar to those we facilitate between everyday people throughout the year. Views on race are formed at an early age and are deeply rooted in personal experience.
In Dallas, Chief of Police U. Renee Hall made an unpopular decision to enlist the Department of Public Safety to patrol neighborhood beats, and Mayor Eric Johnson was supportive of it. In an attempt to address the violence, matters have become more complicated since a DPS officer discharged a weapon, resulting in the death of someone in southern Dallas.
But I'm encouraged that the relationship between law enforcement and community seems to be moving in the right direction after a long series of constructive discussions. Those conversations should happen much earlier in the process in future initiatives of a similar vein.
We cannot expect our political leadership to lead us along this path. I believe the opposite: If we lead, they will have to follow us. We want to challenge faith leaders to step up because we are equipped to not only lead prayer vigils during this time, but also to lead our nation out of the bowels of hate, racism and idolatry, and into the marvelous light of faith, hope, love and unity.
To business and civic leaders, let's be very clear: Silence is not a form of engagement. Our faith reminds us that we are called to expose and remove evil in its tracks. Your hands, eyes, ears and mouth must become the incarnation of what it means to love your neighborhood as you love yourself.
Therefore, let us listen to our brothers and sisters who may not look like us or live in our part of town or who may think differently. Let us not only listen, but seek to learn by taking off our shoes and putting on our brother's and sister's shoes.
It is our hope that people will not let this crisis pass and revert back to business as usual. It is our hope that all of God's children black, white, brown, rich, poor, north, south, east and west will commit themselves to being part of the solution that will change the course on the many forms of hate and violence that infect our society.
Richie Butler is senior pastor at St. Paul United Methodist Church and founder of Project Unity. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
CORRECTION: The original version of this column incorrectly said Mayor Eric Johnson made the decision with Police Chief Hall to enlist the help of DPS. Johnson was not yet mayor when the decision was made, but he supported the DPS patrols.