BUFFALO, N.Y. — With all of the violence in the world, faith leaders are promoting love, among them Bishop Michael Curry of The Episcopal Church.
While many recall his powerful sermon for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, he has a message that resonates, especially in the city where he grew up as a child.
Curry, was raised in Buffalo, New York and graduated from Hutch Tech. He did an interview with Channel 2's Claudine Ewing, just four days before the mass shooting. He discussed why the world needs love.
"My sister, we have got to do it," he said.
When asked why we have to tell people that Love is the Way, the title of his book, he said, "I think on some level we do understand and on another level, we're not sure it works. Can love really work in a tough, hard bitten world like this, of hard bitten economics, business and politics can it work in a world of difficult interpersonal and personal relationships? Our world is on the edge of war in Ukraine. And people of Ukraine is simply trying to be free."
He said the opposite of love is selfishness and that he said "is the most destructive force and power in the world."
"It's selfishness that is behind bigotry, racism, hatred, homophobia. It is selfishness that is behind any person putting down another person so they can puff themselves up," he said.
In fact, the mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson hit home with Bishop Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. He issued the following statement:
My heart is heavy with the news that a white supremacist gunman took the lives of 10 children of God in Buffalo on Saturday. I grew up walking distance from the scene of this hateful crime, and my friends and I used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood. Buffalo’s Black community raised and formed me. I grieve with the city and people I love.
The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting, and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long. Bigotry-based violence—any bigotry at all—against our siblings who are people of color, Jewish, Sikh, Asian, trans, or any other group, is fundamentally wrong. As baptized followers of Jesus of Nazareth, we are called to uphold and protect the dignity of every human child of God, and to actively uproot the white supremacy and racism deep in the heart of our shared life.
Please join me in prayer for the shattered families in Buffalo. Please also join me in expressing profound gratitude for the intervention by Buffalo police that likely saved many other lives. Even amid tragedy, even when manifestations of evil threaten to overwhelm, let us hold fast to the good. It is the only way that leads to life.