This is Us, But We Will Be Better

From the Minneapolis Downtown Interfaith Senior Clergy

One thing that all Americans can agree upon during our fractious time is that American society is in crisis. Recently, we have often heard the phrase “this isn’t us.” A look at American history, however, reveals that this is indeed us. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, may we face the disease of white supremacy. As the American author adrienne maree brown phrases it, “things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”

The human religious impulse in its many manifestations is centrally about connection: connection to the sacred; connection to the earth; connection to our human family.

This is central to the mission of the Minneapolis Downtown Interfaith Senior Clergy.

In the face of the worst of human nature, our religious traditions insist upon hope. After all, the word “crisis” comes to us from the Greek, meaning “a turning point in a disease.” Our national illness is plain to see.  We are today in crisis, but we can make it a point of turning toward good.  The antidote is compassion and connection.

We invite the religious and those without religion to join us in our common purpose of making this nation what Americans have long dreamed it can be.

Signed, the Minneapolis Downtown Interfaith Senior Clergy,

Dr. Hamdy El-Sawaf, Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis,  Rev. Jia Starr Brown, Rev. Dr. David Breeden, Imam Makram El-Amin, Rev. Dr. Tim Hart-Anderson, Father Kevin Kenney, Rev. Judy Zabel, Rev. Dr. Laurie Pound-Feille, Rev. Peter Nycklemoe, Rev. Jen Crow, Rev. Justin Schroeder, Rev. Paul Lebens-England