wfn.org | NCCCUSA Reflection on Smith Killings

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

81NCC7/13/99   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC NATIONAL MINISTRIES EXECUTIVE REFLECTS ON SMITH KILLINGS

 NEW YORK - The Rev. Dr. Staccato Powell, National 
Council of Churches Associate General Secretary for National 
Ministries, offers the following reflection on the recent 
killing spree in Illinois and Indiana by Benjamin Nathaniel 
Smith:

"What causes hatred and hopelessness to so invade the 
human heart that indiscriminate violence and vengeance can 
be inflicted on innocent victims who are perfect strangers?  
How much hatred is necessary to erase the category of 
"human" to those that we meet?  Is it a death wish or a 
death fixation?

"Once again our sensibilities have been shaken with the 
recent shootings in Illinois and Indiana by a solitary 
gunman.  What is more alarming is that the thought process 
of Benjamin Nathaniel Smith aka August Smith was in part 
shaped by the teachings of an organization known as The 
World Church of the Creator.  From all preliminary 
information and investigation, the adherents to this 
movement may not actually be involved in a church as we know 
it, and they certainly have a distorted view of the Creator 
and the Creator's mandate for creation.

"Jesus of Nazareth provides the very foundation for 
what men and women of good will and heavenly intention 
embody as a religious code of ethic.  "By this shall all 
people know that you are my disciples, that you have love 
one for the other," "Love your neighbor as yourself," "Love 
ye one another as I have loved you."  This is the Creator's 
credo.

"Murder, intolerance, racial polarization and bigotry, 
all serve to unravel the delicate fabric used to weave the 
beloved community.  The tattoo "Sabbath Breaker" proudly 
sported on the chest of Benjamin Smith became a self-
fulfilled prophecy as he struck outside a Jewish synagogue 
Friday evening (the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath), 
wounding several' as he shot a Korean worshipper leaving 
church; the drive by felling of a clergyman, and the 
assassination of an African American father walking 
peacefully with his children.

"What could so embitter a 21-year-old, suburban bred, 
university trained young white man?  Whatever the cause, the 
cure and the precautions are the urgent and unavoidable 
priority of the day.

"The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
USA, with its 35 Protestant and Orthodox member 
denominations and their 52 million congregants, cannot sit 
passively by and stew in quiet outrage.  

"The Racial Justice and Reconciliation ministry of the 
Council is planning to convene an historic "Moratorium on 
Racism" March 30- April 1, 2000, in Chicago.  It is the aim 
of the Council to convene in the heartland in order to speak 
to the heart of America.  

"The healing of this nation's racial divide rests 
within the collective power of our will. The mainline faith 
community can not continue to be complicitous through the 
sin of silence."

-end-

See related NCC News Brief (7/13/99 -- NCC "MORATORIUM ON 
RACISM" MEETING SET FOR SPRING 2000")
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