(RNS) — As tensions in Minneapolis continue between residents, federal agents and protesters, the Rev. Stacey Smith, an African Methodist Episcopal Church presiding elder, said Black churches are taking action to address complex needs in the Twin Cities area.
“We recognize that we are in profound crisis,” said the supervisor of 10 AME churches in Minneapolis and St. Paul. “And when you’re in profound crisis, it’s like putting your finger in a dike, and another hole opens up, and you have to put your finger over here.”
Black faith leaders are taking steps to aid Minneapolis residents who have seen an influx of federal officers in their city and are joining calls for new legislation to increase their accountability. A week after the shooting death of Renee Good and more than five years after the death of George Floyd, each at the hands of law enforcement, some are seeking to defuse the tensions between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or between agents and the people they seek to detain.
On Thursday (Jan. 15), Smith and other Twin Cities-area AME Church officials issued a statement, saying Good’s death “never should have happened,” and listed more than a dozen ways they have tried to meet community needs …