It was a visibly challenging Sunday morning for members of True Bethel Baptist Church and their leader, Bishop Darius G. Pridgen, as they attempted to come to terms with the massacre unleashed on the innocent shoppers by the 18-year-old shooter, Payton S. Gendron.
Three others were also injured in the attack, explained in a statement by U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland as “an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
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"I want to say this publicly, especially to my white pastors, don't tell me you're a friend of our community, and you don’t address this today in your pulpit," stated Pridgen, the president of the Buffalo Common Council, from his pulpit during the 8:30 a.m. service broadcast live to thousands on YouTube on Sunday.
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"Don’t tell me you love all people, and you don't stand up against racism, and you don't stand up against hatred, and you don't stand up against white supremacy,” he expressed as many Buffalo churches grieved their neighbors in other services. “You do your church over there, but as for us, we are grieving."
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“And if you don’t stand behind that holy desk and acknowledge that there are still people who hate black people, you can go to Hell with the shooter for all I care because, at the end of the day, if you're silent right now, you're not a friend of mine,” the bishop resumed. “Don’t invite me to your repast. Don’t invite me to have words in your Black History Month."
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Pridgen expressed that now is the time for everyone to stand against hostility.
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"This is the time for black and white people, for Jew and gentile, for Muslim, to stand up together and say no to hatred," he declared.
In the audience at the True Bethel Baptist Church service mourning the victims on Sunday were New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, state Sen. Tim Kennedy, and Erie County Legislature Chairwoman April Baskin.
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Just over a year ago, a report from LifeWay Research discovered that despite massive protests in 2020 against police brutality and racial injustice following the death of George Floyd, fewer pastors, especially white congregation leaders, stated they are willing to preach sermons on the race compared to 2020.
The study showed that only 74% of pastors agree that their congregation would receive a sermon on racial reconciliation. And of that number, only 32% strongly agreed. In 2016, some 90% of pastors said their church would welcome a sermon on racial reconciliation, with 57% strongly agreeing.
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While the concept of racial reconciliation is described in different ways in specific communities in the U.S., the website Racial Equity Tools maintains the process includes public acknowledgment of racist events and crimes such as apartheid or brutality against groups of color.
The website also states that racial reconciliation "may also examine and make public the current impact of such events and their historical occurrence." Individual victims can also be privileged to "tell their stories for the record as one part of a healing process," while "individual perpetrators might also acknowledge their complicity. Formal and serious apologies are also often part of this work where victims can choose to accept or reject that apology."
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