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Dear Michelle,
For Muslims, Jews, Christians and many others around the world, the war in the Holy Land has crushed our spirits, as we see the dreadful images and horrific pain caused by violence and war. Trying to make sense of war makes little sense.
In 1967, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged the Beloved Community to work for a freedom that spreads to combat three evils—the evil of racism, the evil of poverty and the evil of war. These three forms of evil are interrelated, all-inclusive and stand as barriers to our living in the Beloved Community.
As we celebrate the many reasons for unity—the life and legacy of Dr. King, Black History Month, the Lunar New Year—we also must acknowledge the pain and division that is still growing in our midst. In our great state of Oregon, we continue to look towards the needs of our brothers and sisters who are facing evil. We must continue to speak out against hateful rhetoric in our community and defeat the same three evils that still exist today: racism, poverty and war.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon will continue to encourage honest and respectful dialogue behind closed doors and in open forums, as we recently did in a letter to the editor, “End Community Hate and Injustice,” featured in the Oregonian.
We will continue our work because this is what matters.
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