Pastor to Trump: Listen with 'empathy and compassion' to the Black community

Pastor James Ward of Insight Church urged Donald Trump to listen to the pain and struggles of the Black community during Trump’s visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.

Trump went to Kenosha after days of protests following the hospitalization of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in the city. Ward is the pastor if Blake’s mother.

Trump was discouraged from traveling to the area by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, who said Trump’s presence would “only hinder our healing,” and “delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”

From a community roundtable event in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sept. 1, 2020:

PASTOR JAMES WARD: I just want to offer to you, Mr. President: Jesus himself said ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’ And we want to help be of service to you and to our nation of having these conversations of: How do we rebuild the foundations of spirituality and morality, which gives us the context of love.

 

If you give a righteous, good moral man the launch codes to our nuclear arsenal, everyone would be safe because he’s a good man. But if you give a malicious man who is immoral an ink pen, you have to fear for your life.

 

I just want to say that we’re here to be of service to you and to our country to bring unity. We believe that we can help to listen with empathy and compassion to the real pain that hurts Black Americans.

 

But we want to of service to you and to our nation to do whatever we can to bring true healing, true peace, and to really see God’s very best in our nation.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.