The decision came a little more than a week after a grand jury ruled there was no criminal case in\u00a0the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ambrose Minson cried after the ruling in the Garner case, then decided to take action. On Dec. 4, she joined fellow church members and thousands of others at a largely peaceful demonstration that extended from lower Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge.<\/p>\n She is among the United Methodists across the United States who seek ways to bear witness that all lives matter.<\/p>\n Since last week\u2019s ruling, church members have held prayer gatherings and joined in protests. Church leaders, including those at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, also have made plans to advocate for long-term reforms aimed at serving both the police and the people they are called to protect.<\/p>\n Ambrose Minson, a Ph.D. student at Drew University Theological School, the United Methodist seminary in Madison, N.J., said the church needs to respond. While her faith in U.S. institutions is shaken, her faith remains strong in God and the church\u2019s capacity to do God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are always in the process of working toward bringing God\u2019s kingdom to the people of the earth \u2014 and that is confronting injustice in all its forms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, the top executive at Church and Society, said she thinks \u201cchurches can make a huge difference in urging nonviolence and constructive ways forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent grand jury rulings are just the latest events to grab headlines in a country\u00a0where laws actively discriminated against African Americans within living memory<\/a>\u00a0and where black and whites still can have\u00a0different experiences with law enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n In November, a Cleveland police officer fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice who was playing with a toy gun. That case is still being investigated, but the boy\u2019s mother said\u00a0she is seeking criminal charges<\/a>. On Dec. 4, the U.S. Justice Department released\u00a0a searing review of the Cleveland police department\u2019s exercise of force and called for sweeping reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n In September, another grand jury decided not to indict police officers in the shooting death of\u00a0John Crawford III<\/a>, who was holding an air rifle in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmart.<\/p>\n Still, there is no question police work is important but dangerous. According to the\u00a0National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund<\/a>, 67 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty during the first half of 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand why police departments would be fearful,\u201d Henry-Crowe said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know when someone may be carrying a gun or not, so I have a lot of sympathy for police departments and their charge and their responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n No reliable national data exists on\u00a0<\/em>deaths that result from law enforcement<\/a>, but law enforcement agencies voluntarily report to the FBI about\u00a0<\/em>400 justifiable homicides a year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Ohio East Area Bishop John L. Hopkins, whose area encompasses Cleveland, said churches are responding to law-enforcement concerns with prayer. They also are striving for better relations between police and the communities they serve, but that remains a challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cMy experience in all kind of community tensions is that you need to develop relations before the problems come,\u201d he said. \u201cI am proud of churches that have been developing relationships. \u2026 It\u2019s harder than 30 or 40 years ago when churches were more prominent in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race offers\u00a0resources for congregations to have \u201cvital conversations\u201d about violence and working with law enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Erin Hawkins, the agency\u2019s top executive, stressed that healing relationships between police and communities will take time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are decades of tension in terms of relationship between law enforcement and especially poor, ethnic communities,” Hawkins said. “Churches need to do their own thinking about what are the ways we heal that gap.”<\/p>\n Prayer, she said, is where congregations should start. \u201cBut if we never get up off our knees and never do something with what we\u2019re hearing from God in these conversations, then we are not fully being the church.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond conversation, the Board of Church and Society \u2014 which advocates for the denomination\u2019s social teachings \u2014 is calling for broader policy changes nationwide.<\/p>\n A statement titled\u00a0\u201cRepent \u2014 Reconcile \u2014 Restore,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0encourages United Methodists to advocate for evaluation of law enforcement practices, the demilitarization of police forces and independent citizen-review boards. The statement calls for establishing economic and social systems that ensure the welfare of all, as well as strong nonviolent direct action against injustice and institutional racism.<\/p>\n Much of the problem boils down to trust, Bishop Ernest S. Lyght, interim leader of the New York Area, said\u00a0<\/em>in a statement<\/a>. He urges police to get out of their cars and walk around the people they serve.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cTrust is a matter of mutuality \u2014 citizens must trust the police and at the same time, the police must trust the community for which they have policing responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the immediate aftermath of the grand jury decisions, Daquel Harris found comfort in the presence of her church family at Church of the Village. She was leading a Bible study when the grand jury\u2019s decision in the Garner case was made public.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of any place I\u2019d rather be when I get news like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her church has been trying to find ways to witness to justice. On Sunday, Nov. 30, congregants after worship\u00a0took a photo to show solidarity with nonviolent protesters in Ferguson<\/a>. Church members showed the \u201cHands up, don\u2019t shoot\u201d gesture.<\/p>\n Retired Bishop Alfred Johnson, the church\u2019s pastor, said he understands his congregation\u2019s desire to act. He noted that as an African-American male, he was stopped and frisked by police more times than he could count when he lived in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to give people a way to respond, not just to hold it in but to find a way to do something positive. As the Scripture says,\u00a0be angry but don\u2019t sin<\/a>,\u201d he said, referencing Ephesians 4:26.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the cross was transformed from a symbol of shame to a symbol of power, that\u2019s the way we want to try to make this thing happen.\u201d<\/p>\nNeed for change\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n
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Proposed reforms<\/h4>\n
Immediate response<\/h4>\n
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