Today was overwhelming

Today was overwhelming, both in ways good and bad. It started with a rich and thoughtful Learning Cohort where we grappled with the problem of pain, of being disappointed in God and unanswered prayer.

It was resonant as we mourned another mass shooting targeting Asian Americans.

And The Table Church also commissioned and prayed over the leaders of our new AAPI Affinity Group. Churches ought to celebrate difference and diversity, not try to squash it.

As I think about my rage and sorrow about the shooting today, I'm pondering the refrain in Kings and Chronicles: "The king sinned and made Israel sin along with him." Every mass shooting is a failure of governance, a failure of our national leadership. Every shooting is a choice made by Republican leaders to promote the circumstances to make this keep happening.

If you wanted to create a nation where racist violence is the norm:

• refuse to restrict guns,
• ban racially-conscious education
• promote economic policies to keep poor people poor and make the middle class poorer
• and then teach the middle class the reason they're getting poor is other races and immigrants.