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Pillay joined the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA in condemning the act of hatred that took the lives of three innocent people on 26 August.
The shooting took place the same day thousands of people gathered in Washington, DC, for a March on Washington to continue to pursue the justice and equality Rev. Dr Martin Luther King called for in his famous “I have a dream” speech.
“Racism is not just an issue for Black and Brown people,” said National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA president and general secretary Bishop Vashti McKenzie, who also spoke at the March on Washington. “We need to enact and enforce legislation that targets systemic racism.”
Pillay expressed both grief and determination for action in solidarity with the victims, their families, and the churches in the USA. He expressed that it is both alarming and unacceptable that lives continue to be injured and lost because of racially invoked hate speeches and tendencies.
“As we walk with the Jacksonville community and churches in their pain and sorrow, we also stand with those who are demanding an end to complacency, an end to violence, and an end to racially motivated hate,” Pillay wrote. “We will pray and we will act to end the scourge of racism and extremism that affects not only those in the USA but across the world.”
