Jackie Hendry: In this moment in our collective experience right now we're witnessing a lot of pain, a lot of anger and the culmination of a lot of history. So, what's the role of our faith in this time? Well, we're dedicating this next hour to a conversation with a round table of faith leaders here in South Dakota to help us navigate how we can reconcile ourselves and our faith with what's unfolding around us. I want to take a moment to introduce our guests. First off, I'll introduce Reverend Marcus Brooks. He's pastor at the Wild Flower Presbyterian Church. Rev. Marcus Brooks, welcome to the In The Moment.
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Thank you for having me on.
Jackie Hendry: Also joining us today, Bishop Constanze Hagmaier of the South Dakota Synod, ELCA. That's Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Constanze, welcome to In The Moment as well.
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Thank you. It's good to be with you all.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa Brokenleg also joins us today. She's staff officer for racial reconciliation with the Episcopal Church in the United States. Reverend Shaneequa, welcome.
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.
Jackie Hendry: And Chandradhar Dwivedi also joins us today. He's Hindu priest and also a professor at South Dakota State University's College of Pharmacy & Allied Health Professions. Chandradhar Dwivedi, welcome to the In The Moment to you as well.
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: Good afternoon. It's good to be here. Thanks for inviting.
Jackie Hendry: I thank all of you for taking time to help us through this moment today. I want to start off with this idea of pain. A lot of us are in pain right now and it really seemed to start for so many of us with the COVID-19 pandemic. We're suffering from isolation, from fear and uncertainty, how this virus has thrown everything on its head. Now we compound that with witnessing and some of us experiencing suffering from systemic racism and witnessing police brutality and concerns about what America is and what it's becoming in this moment. Rev. Marcus Brooks, I think I want to start with you on this one. Talk to us about this role of suffering and how we can experience this in community together. Where do we start with this? I'll also kind of go around to the rest of us, but I want to start with you, Rev. Brooks.
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Well, this cannot be something that's only in the moment. This can't be something where we're passionate about two weeks and then we just let it go and we move on to the next thing because we're talking about lives here. Many of us have saw the video of what took place in Minnesota, there was a man who lost his life, a daughter who lost her father and so on and so forth. There are so many different stories that are just like this one. What I would say to your question is that it can't be something that we look at momentarily. This has to be something that is ongoing, and it needs to be continued not only through black individuals here in America but every race, because this involves us all. It may hit black Americans immediately or directly, but it affects us all.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa, talk to us about pain and the role of that in our faith.
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Ooh. I think in our scripture there's lots of stories of pain and times of pain. I think we as people of faith need to think about how we lament and take time to lament and be present with those who are lamenting in that pain. Just like Pastor Brooks said, it's not something that we want to just get over and move on from. We need to be present and be there with it. I think one of the things that we don't think about always is, I think at least Christians of privilege, we often think of the church triumphant or have a theology of triumphalism and God as conquering everything. But I think we also need to think about our theology of the cross where we identify with the suffering of Christ and the pain of Christ that He went through when He was executed and crucified.
I think for many people of color, we're already there identifying with that. We recognize that in our own faith journeys, but I think many folks don't do that. They think of the church as just a place where we're happy and not always a place of where we share our sorrows.
Jackie Hendry: Bishop Constanze, how about your input on pain.
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Well, I like to speak into the reality of the lament which is really deep grief. That's something that binds us as humans together is we experience grief. From the moment we are born there is grief of leaving the security of our mother's wombs and then we enter onto the world of death, really, as individuals and as people, as humans, as God's good creation, facing the journey towards death. So there's always grief involved and, jeez, the shortest verse in the Bible is Jesus wept, so He deeply knows what grief is. He has come to be there. I think our society likes to sometimes push that to the side, because grief is uncomfortable. Lament is uncomfortable. Right now it is the time where we need to lean into what makes us uncomfortable with this pain and this lament, and what can we learn from it and how can we move forward with wounds, feeling, and speaking out of scars.
Jackie Hendry: Chandradhar, your perspective?
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: Well, I agree with everybody who already spoke. Pain is so much, and I'm sure we all are experiencing the pain when we're watching the video. So we don't know. It doesn't matter what our faith is or whatever we believe in, but the pain is the pain. This is not something new. It has not happened just once. It has been happening. But somehow we think pain will go away by itself, and it will not go away. As a model leader and the religious service provider, it is our responsibility to teach every life matters. It doesn't matter what color you are, what age you are, we are all created by the same God and we all should respect each other. Thank you.
Jackie Hendry: I talked a bit in the opening of this hour about the role of prayer. For instance, I myself, I grew up in a somewhat evangelical background. Oftentimes any issue that I came up with, the solution almost always was prayer, and I'll go through with all of us to talk about these ideas of prayer and an interesting idea of, well, what are you really praying for? Is it relief for yourself, is it peace? Is it better action? Reverend Brooks, I'm told you've talked about this a little bit about prayers of peace versus prayers of action. Is that something you can tell us more about?
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Well, like you said, prayer's been a part of my life as well for a very long time, and some of the things that we can pray a lot about, that I pray a lot about... I'll speak to myself, excuse me... is peace, is deeper understanding, comfort, and care. But recently I felt the need to pray for something different, to pray for justice, to pray for righteousness, action, and rehabilitation for our country. That is something that I think must be heavily included, because in my denomination in the Christian faith, one of the things that I was always taught repeatedly was that faith without works is dead. So if we pray, if I were to pray and do nothing, what actions will take place?
So I felt the need to transition that prayer into something more or something in addition, rather, and righteousness is something that is a great value of mine. It's something I look to, and something I try to be more of. And me being human, I know I'm not perfect. Even though I'm a pastor, I know I'm not perfect, but righteousness is a value of mine and I seek to teach about it as well.
Jackie Hendry: Chandradhar, I want to ask you, because I'm not familiar with Hindu traditions as far as prayer goes. Tell us the role of prayer in this respect.
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: Our religion really strongly believes in the prayers, and we have a prayer for every step in our life. We have 16 steps in our life that starts from taking the birth and until we die. So we have this special prayers for every step in our life from taking birth until we die. Prayer is not alone in the faith, but one thing I would like to emphasize here, Hinduism believes in believers. We think body dies and soul does not die, so the soul eventually comes back in different life in different forms. So in this case, when we're talking about George Floyd, of course his body dies, but his soul is alive and watching all of us, what religious society and religious leader and committee member and political leader, what we are doing for him already. So it's just that I would say prayer has a lot of meaning and lot of value, but at the same time, as Reverend Brooks indicated, the prayer for peace is good, but we have to have prayer also follow actions.
So we could not witness similar things over and over and over and over and over. The book explains our point of view the prayer has a lot of value and lot of meanings, but at the same time we have to do something about it.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa, I know you work in a national and sometimes international sense with racial reconciliation with the Episcopal church. Tell us a little bit about that work and how prayer plays into that work.
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Well, I think prayer is obviously a foundation of everything we do, and I think the work of racial reconciliation is something that we should all be doing, that we all need to be working on, and to me as a Lakota person, I think of it in terms of being a good relative. We say Mitákuye Oyás’in which means we are all related, but we're not just talking about people, we're talking about plants and animals and all of creation, so I think of it to myself and those around, how are we being a good relative to others? In terms of the church, we have a thing that we're working on right called Building Beloved Community, and it consists of how are we telling the truth about the things of the past, how are we repairing the breech of things that are harmed, how are we proclaiming the dream, the dream of a community where we all are together, where we all love one another, and how are we doing that work to create those things?
So that's some of what I've been doing.
Jackie Hendry: Bishop Hagmaier, speaking of relationship with all creation, and you can include your thoughts on prayer in this too, but I also know that you and Pastor Marcus have drawn some parallels between George Floyd's cry that he can't breathe and the parallel between the breath of creation and the relationships there. Tell us a little bit about breath and creation and prayer.
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Well, I'm a firm believer that prayer really doesn't change God as much as it changes us and makes us keenly aware what my predecessors just said, that we're all interconnected. This is a breathing, living creation that the Creator gave to us and invited us to participate in. So it all breathes, and while we now focus on George Floyd, we also focus on the violence that is all around us all the time where we are not as mindful with the creation that God has given us. We can name countless things where we understood the invitation to care for creation and start doing it, and we see how it takes our breath away and it takes creation's breath away. So while George Floyd just brought it to a peak, I think we see all kinds of violent acts around us, whether it is through creation that blossoms around us, whether it is to other humans or to the cruelty of animals that we sometimes experience first-hand, it is all interconnected, and I think that's where it leads back to this pain.
So prayer, for me, is not a answer box where I can bring my will to God and then as often as I pray... I always joke about this prayer, "Lord, make me win in the lottery", and finally this person prays this over and over and God says, "You need to buy a ticket before that happens." I think sometimes we see prayer as something where we want our will to be done and we need to be reminded that Jesus very clearly said, "Not My will but Your will be done." So prayer for me is a way of life where I allow God to speak into my life to correct me in my own understanding, but to also assure me that if I ask upon my faith that He has instilled in me, I will have the courage to act on that prayer.
Jackie Hendry: Now we're going to move a little bit to anger and action together in this moment in time, and Reverend Shaneequa, I'm going to start with you on this one because, well, we're seeing a lot with responses that people have as things turn to riots, and responses people have with the different places that are and are not involved in riots. I'm also thinking about in Washington, DC, President Trump's journey to St. John's church which had been a target of some of those riots and what many people are calling a photo op in front of the church. That church is an Episcopal church as I'm aware. Reverend Shaneequa, talk to us about folks saying on the one hand, "I'm angry about the President using the church as a prop", but folks on the other hand saying, "Well, why aren't you angry that the church was part of the rioting?" Talk to us about that role.
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Sure. First, let's be clear. Trump posed in front of a building, not in front of the church. The church are the people who were passing out and receiving water and food and prayers outside of the building that day. The church are the people who were tear-gassed and shot as they were being the hands and feet of Christ in the world so that Trump could do some sort of partisan photo op, let's be clear about that. And I think as we're thinking about folks saying the church, I think we as the church are to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world and we strive to do that. Not all of us do that. We all fall short of that, I think. When people are upset about, I've heard a lot of people in South Dakota saying that too, "Why are we doing protests because they just lead to rioting", which isn't true.
You can tell the difference between a good cop and a bad cop. You can tell the difference between a protester and a rioter. I think we forget that after World Series and Super Bowls and World Cups, people often riot then too, but you don't hear any calls for us to cancel sports games. It's just, I think people forget and their priorities are in the wrong place.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Brooks, in our previous segment talking about prayers and looking for action, changing attention in prayers to maybe other areas of righteousness or better awareness and all these other things, talk to us about anger in that action. How do we deal with anger as we're witnessing what's happening?
Rev. Marcus Brooks: As human beings witnessing what happened in that video, for people to feel anger from it, it's good that they felt anger because things like that are not supposed to happen. How I look at prayer is like this. Prayer is me saying I cannot do this alone. I cannot fix this by myself. It allows me to invite God in, and so that's how I use prayer, and it's how I continue to look at it. But Jackie if you may, I want to make sure that I answer that answer completely. Can you say that for me again?
Jackie Hendry: What I'm getting to is the role of anger in our faith and in the things that we pray for and the actions that we take. I think so often we try to... well, maybe in my own experience I should say, we try to distinguish between good and bad anger, and what we tamp down in ourselves and what we act on. Kind of a convoluted question, but just the role of anger in faith and the role of anger in faithful actions.
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Okay. Well, as you know, as religious leaders for myself, I think it's vital for me to recognize that people are angry and to explore that anger with them, not to ignore it, not to try to act like it should be something else, not to condemn them in any way, but to approach that anger and listen to them and do my very best of my ability to try to transition that anger into passion. And that comes along with that prayer of proactiveness, of righteousness, of action, in hopes that we can move towards doing something in finding a solution for ending this and approaching the need of racism, which I believe it is. It's approaching that racism and finding out how we can combat it. If it's murders like what we've seen, how we can approach that and end it, how we can build better relationships with law enforcement and healing for the communities.
So the question you asked, that's the million-dollar question. I thought long and hard about this, about what is the solution, and that is still something that is ongoing. But everything in what I just shared, that's just how I feel about what makes sense and what needs to be done. But again, like I said, it's not something that I can do on my own, so I pray for guidance and help.
Jackie Hendry: Bishop Hagmaier, I'll pose a very similar question to you. How we channel our anger into righteousness sometimes, or how we channel that into our prayers and our actions? I think about your metaphor with the lottery in the last segment. You can pray all you want for something but you have to buy a ticket, take a certain step. When someone's blinded with anger about something, sometimes it's easy to misstep.
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Thank you for that question because I think it's helpful to define anger. So anger really is a secondary emotion. Anger just covers up something that's way beneath the surface, whether it's grief or shame or depression, it's a secondary emotion. Anger is an outlet of something that brought on that anger, and that might look very different. Well, not quite. That'll look very different for everyone. So that's number one.
Number two, Scripture, especially in the book of Psalms, is filled with psalms which is the language of God's people, songs of God's people with holy anger, and I think there's a difference. I have a minute, I'll explain it just a little bit.
Jackie Hendry: Yes, please.
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Holy anger is different. In the 150 psalms that we have in Scripture, only one ends on a devastating note. All 149 on the other hand can start in anger, in holy anger, and I'll define what I mean by that in a little bit. But they end on a note of acknowledging that God will bring forth healing, joy, whatever else there is at the end but the acknowledgement that God is going to take care of this holy anger. So for me, holy anger is something that's very clear and it's clear in a way that is never selfish. It's not about me. When I express holy anger it is always driven by injustice that happens toward God's good creation. It also is lasting. It's not just a flareup of my temper, I'm angry now but tomorrow I don't care anymore. That's not holy anger.
If we go all back to our normal life, then what we were when we were angry and that anger covered up something else in our life that we're not ready to deal with. But holy anger lasts, and even God knows about anger, right? We know out of the book of Psalms in Scripture that God is slow to anger, right? But it lasts, it doesn't go away. It's not just a flareup of emotion, and it's unifying. It is a unity. It's a cry of all creation, and there we go again. It's all of us being hurt and vulnerable, and it plays out in some different ways. And it's addressed. It has at least to change, just like in the Psalms. I might be angry when I come to God, but I let God to work with me, direct my steps into action with the community that I'm surrounded in for change. So holy anger for me is different than just being angry and lashing out and then being done, sit down and got my clothes on. It propels change that's brought on by injustice.
Jackie Hendry: Chandradhar Dwivedi, I want to bring you into this conversation about anger. We're hearing the importance of acknowledging it and then how we move forward. Yes, go ahead.
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: Our process is very similar in our belief as Reverend Hagmaier indicated that anger is part of normal emotions, but when we get angry we do not have to take action when we're angry. And that's a time we have a prayer in our faith we call Gayatri Mantra, and I will just give a brief class lesson of that. That prayer in difficult time, we pray that "God, the Supreme God, please guide and direct my wisdom and intelligence so I should not do any immoral things and do something which is with good for humanity." And once you pray and you get the inspiration from the Almighty, part you have to do. So anger is a normal emotion but as Reverend Hagmaier indicated, anger should not lead to violence. But when you are angry, take a moment and think about possible options and choose the option which is not immoral, does not hurt a person, which leads to a good part of humanity.
And I will give a very, Mahatma Gandhi those are to who are familiar with his work, he believed in that and he has two pillar principles, truth and satyagraha, insistence for truth, and nonviolence. He was very successful against such a huge British Empire getting the freedom for India, so I strongly believe in what Gandhi believed in. So when we get angry, violence is not the answer, but we should insist on the truth and do what's the right thing to do in nonviolent way.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Brokenleg, we started with you and I want to circle back to you. What else do you have to add about the role of anger in our faith?
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: I think just remembering that anger is a healthy emotion. I mean, you hear people sometimes say, "I never get angry", but don't trust anybody who says that because everybody gets angry. Even Jesus got angry, and there's a story about him turning over the tables of the temple money changers. The word in the gospels that they used for compassion can also be translated as anger, so when they said Jesus was filled with compassion, it could also be Jesus was filled with anger, and that's used at several different points in some different stories. I think remembering that Jesus maybe used that anger to do good work or that might have been the fire that inspired him to do different things, and I think that can be a fire that inspires us as well to create change.
Jackie Hendry: Yeah, as you say often changes is rarely spurred by smooth waters, I guess, to kind of mix metaphors there. It stems from something else. Also as we're talking about action, some folks may be angry, they may see the need for change. They see the need in their community but may not be comfortable or may not be led to go to a protest or to do something else. I want to go around fairly quickly and talk about other ways that faithful people can recognize their anger, and if they don't know what to do with it, what's some of your suggestions for what to do with it? Maybe I'll start this one with Bishop Hagmaier. What can we do with these feelings?
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: We can seek community, community that will help us sort through these angry emotions that we have poured out with holy anger and help us to act upon the faith that is placed within us. So for my denomination I would encourage people to go and seek community within their faith community, within their local communities to connect to the wider church. We offer lots of resources through advocacy platforms where people can find community that will help them to lead into action steps of all abilities. You do not need to be an expert, you just need to have this drive that God placed in you to direct your energy, bring about justice for all creation.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Brooks, what's your input on what we do with this?
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Well, I agree with what was just said. One of the things that I just wanted to add was last week I had the experience of going to, it started as a peaceful protest downtown. One of the things that I saw there, it was beautiful, it was incredible. I saw people there of different races, different genders, cultures, colors, creeds, all standing together in support. And in that group you had... everybody there was moved. Whether we want to use anger, passion, they were moved there, and from that there was love presented, there was support and encouragement that was shown there. So for anyone that is filled with anger and they're really struggling to find a way to release it, to let it out, I would advise, I would simply just say to find that form of support and encouragement and love.
If faith is something that someone is grounded to in their roots, absolutely. Go to a church, or whatever their religion or spirituality may be and find the support and that encouragement there, but also I would add not to forget, just because anger can subside when we release it. Let it not be something we forget but continue to find a new way and how to take what we learned, be that support or encouragement through our faith or however it is we go about getting it and sharing that with the next person, because we all must be involved in this, we all must be connected for true reconciliation.
Jackie Hendry: Chandradhar, guide us on our actions.
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: I have a very similar approach as previous speakers have indicated. We do the peaceful protest and try to build the community, and that community puts pressure on the national leadership. I'm not just talking about the political leaders. Somehow community has to put pressure on model leaders, religious leaders or community leaders. Because you and I can only find a community and put pressure on the community leaders to do something to make a difference. If peaceful protests we do and it goes away, and then after a year or two, 10 years, it comes back again. So I think as a community, we all have to be together and push parties so the leadership comes out and we take this time and solve this problem for good.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa?
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: I think, one, I think thinking about things like notes there's a passage that talks about everybody having different gifts. And so for some folks you want to look at where do the gifts that you have and what the community needs, where do those things overlap? That can be where you would find the way that you can help moving forward or do it. So for some folks there might be just having your presence. There are people there that maybe didn't know what to do that came to that peaceful protest that devolved, but they were there, they were present. That's important, too. I think for some folks it's there, for some folks it's support. For some folks it's deep theological reflection. Someone told me that they were thinking it was Pentecost and a fire and a refining fire. What are the things that society needs to refine so that all can live and live in a way that's real and grow.
But I also think thinking about it on maybe on a [inaudible 00:35:16] level, what are you doing as an individual? What are you doing as a family? What are you doing as a congregation? What are you doing as a diocese or a synod or presbytery? Those kind of questions. And for sure, get out and vote, please. That's important. If you can vote, you definitely need to vote.
Jackie Hendry: So much of what we're seeing, both in how we experience our faith and in the events we're watching unfold in our nation, all of these things are also steeped in history. Many of these things are echos of things we've seen or heard before. It's also a time when people look back on faith leaders of the past and what their response might be in this time. Chandradhar Dwivedi, I want to start with you. You mentioned Mahatma Gandhi in a previous segment. Talk to us a little more about lessons from Gandhi and how they might be applied in this moment in time.
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: Well, as I mentioned, I don't know how many of you are familiar with, even at that time I wasn't born. In 1947 when the British were living in India, combined India, and then you added country Sikhs, small country. And during that time there were lot of Indo-Muslim conflict. The country was divided on the basis of their religion, the Indos one side and Muslim on one side. That created so much conflict. Thousands and thousands people died during that conflict. But that time Mahatma Gandhi took this change that killing each other is not the answer and he went on a hunger strike that unless the violence stopped, I'm not going to drink water, I'm not going to eat anything, and if I have to die, I'll die. And you'll believe it, the violence stopped and there was a peaceful follow up.
And of course, long-term change basically started at least during that time. On his practice of the nonviolence, it helped. But that's what I was kind of indicating. If our model leaders or political leaders or religious leaders take a stand and convince the people violence is not the way to go and violence has to be stopped, that's what it takes. Violence has to be stopped. And I always, when I'm in a difficult situation, of course I read my own Scripture. At the same time, I read the biography of Mahatma Gandhi. That gives me more inspiration, how difficult situation he has dealt just by his satyagraha and nonviolence. I believe people asking [inaudible 00:38:26] is needed during this time.
Jackie Hendry: Another faith leader people tend to invoke in times like these of course is Martin Luther King, Jr. We hear many of his quotes resurface in times like these for folks on a variety of sides of the issue. Reverend Marcus Brooks, I'll start with you on this one. Talk to us about when we see situations of civil unrest, particularly when it comes to black Americans and looking back to Martin Luther King, Jr., how are some of his lessons playing out for us today and moving forward?
Rev. Marcus Brooks: Well, one of the things that Dr. King did, and he was influenced heavily by Gandhi, many of the things that I learned from Dr. King was that he, well, he wanted justice, he wanted righteousness for everybody. I don't want to misquote him, but I'll just say that. For everybody. Not just black, but everybody. He was in a position with a situation where he was fighting for black Americans, and so some of the things that we can take from what I think Dr. King led was that this is an ongoing thing. It's a constant fight, it's a constant need to help others who cannot stand up for themselves, who have been fighting but yet still have been defeated. For whatever the reason, it is an ongoing thing that MLK taught me is that it does not stop. When things seem to be going smooth, it's fine to have a moment of peace, but it's still a fight that needs to continue on. It's still something that will continue to take place.
And not only as a civil rights leader, but as a minister he was heavily involved. So for me personally, that was a reason why I felt a need to say something because he did, the right Dr. King did. My role in this too, I need to be out there. I need to be talking with others. I need to be checking with those that will allow me to see how they're doing, to check on them. But it's a constant need, and that's what I learned from him. It's continuous. I'm sorry, a continuous need to love, encouragement, support, and fighting for rights, speaking up for your rights and the rights of others.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa, who are some past faith leaders that you look to in this time?
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Well, I think Nicholas Black Elk had a vision where he talked about being a hoop of many nations, nations meaning the different groups of people all living together. In Lakota we have a word called Wolakota, and it's the state when all things are in right relationship with ourselves, when we are in right relationship with each other, with creation, and with the Creator. I think that's kind of the place we want to be. I look to Martin Luther King, who said, "In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." I think our church has been silent too long. We need to do things, we can't just let things happen, these injustices and think that it's okay for Sunday morning and not do anything about it. I really appreciate our presiding bishop Michael Curry, who's spoken out about several things and I think has really taken a very vocal role in the movement of our church. And he's the first person of color we've had as a presiding bishop.
Jackie Hendry: Bishop Hagmaier, who do you look to?
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: I have to go back to my grandmother. Some of you might know that I grew up in Germany. English is my second language. I am a naturalized citizen since 2006, and I grew up in post-World War II Germany that all of my family experienced World War II. And I remember in particular my grandmother sitting across the table who was a housekeeper in a Jewish household, lost her employment and then was shunned because of her association. It was maybe in the late '70s, early 80s she sat across the kitchen table from me and she said, "I did what I could, but it wasn't enough." And I will never forget her look. When I was ordained into the ministry, Washington ministry, and when I was installed as the bishop of South Dakota synod, it was my grandmother's image who said to never be silent when all creation cries.
And so that's my inspiration. It's no one famous, but conversation at the kitchen table that was history in the making.
Jackie Hendry: We only have two minutes left before we're going to need to close our hour, so I'm going to do my best to get through everyone. But as brief but as true of a message that you can think of as we move into a weekend after a hard week, Chandradhar, I'll start with you and then go down my call screen. What is your message of faith to South Dakota today?
Pr. Chandradhar Dwivedi: I would say all the model leaders, it doesn't matter who they are, they should speak up and try to do something to resolve this issue for good.
Jackie Hendry: Reverend Shaneequa?
Rev. Shaneequa Brokenleg: Let's stand together, grieve together, support and collaborate together.
Jackie Hendry: Bishop Hagmaier?
Bp. Constanze Hagmaier: Faith sparks action.
Jackie Hendry: And Reverend Marcus Brooks?
Rev. Marcus Brooks: If there's anything that we can do to help, please reach out.