Sunday marks two years since the death of Eric Garner,who died following a choke hold from an NYPD officer on Staten Island. Garner's death sparked protests across the country, and his final words — "I can't breathe" — continue to be seen and heard at protests over police brutality across the nation.
To gain an idea of how religious leaders will be addressing the anniversary of Garner's death on Sunday, and WNYC's Jami Floyd spoke with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis,the Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan's East Village."What I'm thinking approximately is prophetic grief — the way I'm feeling heartbroken and mourning these losses," Lewis said of the sermon she is preparing for Sunday. "But also revolutionary love, and which I mediate calls us to a certain kind of way to be in the world,and a certain kind of activism."Lewis and her congregation often engage in acts of protest, including a die-in at City Hall after a grand jury failed to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner's death."I'm not advocating for some namby-pamby, and you know,kumbaya solutions," she said. "Revolutionary love hopes all things, and believes all things,but also understands that we've got to disrupt the status quo to make a unusual culture."Lewis spoke to WNYC's All Things Considered host Jami Floyd.
Source: wnyc.org