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Trump is pushing churches to open. Black pastors in hard-hit St. Louis are preaching caution.
Source: Washington Post
Trump is pushing churches to open. Black pastors in hard-hit St. Louis are preaching caution.
By Griff Witte
5/31/2020, 7:00:00 a.m.
On any given Sunday, the soaring sanctuary of St. Louis’s Church of God in Christ echoes with thundering sermons, joyful music and ecstatic professions of faith.
Just not this week. Or next.
Silent since March, the church will stay that way until Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III deems it safe — even though local authorities have authorized places of worship to reopen and President Trump has prodded them to do it fast. Much as Hankerson wants to get back to preaching the gospel face-to-face, rather than online, he knows through tragic experience exactly what is at stake.
“I have a more personal view of the devastation than many people,” Hankerson said.
So many in St. Louis’s black community do. As is true nationwide, African Americans have been far harder hit by the novel coronavirus in the St. Louis area than other groups. They account for less than half the city’s population but nearly two-thirds of both cases and deaths. In the surrounding county, the death rate for African Americans is twice as high as it is for whites.
-snip-
By Griff Witte
5/31/2020, 7:00:00 a.m.
On any given Sunday, the soaring sanctuary of St. Louis’s Church of God in Christ echoes with thundering sermons, joyful music and ecstatic professions of faith.
Just not this week. Or next.
Silent since March, the church will stay that way until Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III deems it safe — even though local authorities have authorized places of worship to reopen and President Trump has prodded them to do it fast. Much as Hankerson wants to get back to preaching the gospel face-to-face, rather than online, he knows through tragic experience exactly what is at stake.
“I have a more personal view of the devastation than many people,” Hankerson said.
So many in St. Louis’s black community do. As is true nationwide, African Americans have been far harder hit by the novel coronavirus in the St. Louis area than other groups. They account for less than half the city’s population but nearly two-thirds of both cases and deaths. In the surrounding county, the death rate for African Americans is twice as high as it is for whites.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trump-is-pushing-churches-to-open-black-pastors-in-covid-hit-st-louis-are-preaching-caution/2020/05/30/80b87338-a1c9-11ea-b5c9-570a91917d8d_story.html
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