The darkness in Charlottesville is a challenge to Christians

Where do we go from here? That’s the question on many of our minds as we try to assess the devastation wrought by last week’s carnage in a picturesque and historic Virginia college town that became the setting for a confrontation between white supremacists/Nazi sympathizers and those protesting their presence.  

We chat on Facebook, sharing quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and the wisdom of the latest media pundit and politician.  We text.  We pray.  We attend vigils.  We worry.

We know  that one protester was killed when a car barreled into the crowd,  many others injured, and two state police officers dead in a helicopter crash linked to the events. We’ve probably seen the pictures of clergy, arms linked, bravely facing down the neo-Nazis, many of them heavily armed.  But we don’t truly know the toll.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, reaction from faith leaders was not long in coming.  Audrey Scanlon, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, termed the weekend’s violence “intolerable and sinful.”  

'Charlottesville matters'