News and Views

On Dec.18, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, spoke at a service of prayer and solidarity at Asbury UMC in Washington, D.C., where vandals recently tore down and burned a Black Lives Matter banner.

Bishop Easterling's remarks at Asbury UMC

We are here because we are followers of Jesus Christ.

 Jesus Christ proclaimed that the spirit of the Lord was upon him. God had anointed him to proclaim good news to the poor. God has sent him to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight of the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

 The oppressed in our current milieu include those who are over-policed, over-charged, over-prosecuted, over-convicted, over-sentenced, and over-executed.

 The oppressed in our current milieu include those who are criminalized for the color of their skin and made to justify their very existence and whereabouts in a nation that extols freedom and prides herself on liberty.

 The oppressed in our current milieu include those who are marginalized through policies, practices and programs that perpetuate poverty, disenfranchise their voice and their votes, and treat them as commodities, rather than human beings.

 Asbury United Methodist Church raised a banner to stand in solidarity with Jesus the Christ’s ministry of setting the oppressed free. That banner was removed by trespassers who then employed the historic act of using fire to intimidate and terrorize Black and Brown people into silence.

 We are here because we will not be silenced. Domestic terrorism will not silence us. Hate groups will not silence us. Marauding mobs will not silence us.

 We are here because we are followers of Jesus Christ.

 Jesus taught his followers that they shall “love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind.” That this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, that they shall love their neighbor as themselves. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

 We are here because we stand with Christ in loving our neighbors -- not just those neighbors who support us; not just those neighbors who engage in mission and ministry with us; not just those neighbors who pray with and for us, but also those neighbors who resent, misconstrue, malign, and misjudge us. We love you.

 We love you enough to offer you the truth of Christ’s message that all people are created equal. We love you enough to enlighten you to the fact that in the United States of America, there are enough resources for all to live well and live free. We love you enough to want to disabuse you of the notion of your superiority -- because that notion has imprisoned your mind, infected your heart, and blinded your eyes. We love you enough to want you to be liberated as well. As Christ was being crucified, he continued to offer love. He never turned his love away from those who persecuted him. We will not turn our love away from you.

 We are here because we choose love.
We are here because we practice peace.
We are here because we shall not be moved.
We are here because we will not be distracted nor dissuaded from our mission and ministry.
We are here because we will rehang this banner to proclaim that Black Lives Matter.
We are here because hope always endures, justice always prevails, and love always wins.