--- title: Ferguson: A Faithful Way Forward description: The role of faith in this national healing process is crucial. canonical: https://time.com/3182030/ferguson-a-faithful-way-forward/ author: Christopher Hale article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-26T18:58:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:31.208Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ferguson: A Faithful Way Forward og:description: The role of faith in this national healing process is crucial. og:url: https://time.com/3182030/ferguson-a-faithful-way-forward/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7f7fd9c45c3e244/6986a0c2f983e7653204f5ca/michael-brown-funeral-ferguson-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Michael Brown Funeral Ferguson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ferguson: A Faithful Way Forward twitter:description: The role of faith in this national healing process is crucial. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7f7fd9c45c3e244/6986a0c2f983e7653204f5ca/michael-brown-funeral-ferguson-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ferguson: A Faithful Way Forward > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=261f0401-b47b-45a1-a775-7836f8c1b366&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Dick Gregory on Race and Ferguson [Watch (HLS stream): Dick Gregory on Race and Ferguson](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S6qcoMx5.m3u8) (3:27)  _Published 2014-08-20. St. Louis native and Civil Rights activist describes the pain coming from the Ferguson community_ by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Aug 26, 2014 6:58 PM UTC  Guests raise their hands as they wait in line to enter the funeral of Michael Brown at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis on Aug. 25, 2014. Guests raise their hands as they wait in line to enter the funeral of Michael Brown at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis on Aug. 25, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Aug 26, 2014 6:58 PM UTC Monday’s funeral mourning the death and celebrating the life of Michael Brown represents a profound chance for the Ferguson community and the nation at large to begin the healing process and to move forward from the horrific events surrounding the August 11th killing of the unarmed teenager. The role of faith in this national healing process is crucial. Our legal processes and political solutions can give some answers and provide some solace, but these alone cannot heal our people and allow our nation to move forward. Faith teaches us how important it is to encounter the suffering of others. In the Bible, [the first two questions that God addresses to humanity](http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco%5F20130708%5Fomelia-lampedusa.html) are: “where are you?” and “where is your brother?” Today God asks the same of us. We must seek out and find our brothers and sisters in Ferguson. Though we can never completely grasp it, we must encounter their suffering. We must listen to their stories. And we must try to share in their pain. Pope Francis says this “culture of encounter” will even [give us the ability to weep with those who suffer.](http://ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/pope-francis-extols-gift-tears) Though some will want to move immediately into political, policy or even moral solutions, this approach is wrongheaded. No law, no government program and no sermon will alone end the violence and bring complete healing to Ferguson and to the nation. So we must resist the temptation to thrust ourselves into these situations and declare ourselves the messiahs with the answers. Rather, we must be companions for the long journey towards healing. The era of the “voice for the voiceless” is over. Everyone has a voice, and we must encounter it. During his ministry, Jesus of Nazareth encountered many people begging for healing. [While in Jericho](http://www.usccb.org/bible/mt/20:29), two blind men called out to him asking for mercy and for the gift of sight. Though the crowd tried to silence them, the men didn’t waver and cried out, “Lord, open our eyes!” Scripture tells us that Jesus was then moved with compassion for them and gave them their sight. What truth do we discover in Ferguson when we encounter the suffering there and our own blind spots are removed? We first see that the outward violence that has plagued Ferguson since Brown’s killing didn’t begin on the streets that afternoon. Rather, it’s the fruit of the invisible violence that plagues our communities everyday. It’s the violence of institutions that fail to serve its people. It’s the violence that afflicts the poor and makes us indifferent to others’ suffering. It’s the violence of inaction in the face of failing schools, decaying cities and economic disparities. It’s the violence that sows distrust between people and communities because the color of their skin. This violence isn’t as evident as the gunshot that killed Michael Brown, but it’s just as deadly. Nearly six years after the election of Barack Obama, we must acknowledge that racism is still very much alive in our nation and even in our churches. In fact, when we end the carnival of naiveté around this issue and remove the masks, we will see the truth: individual and structural racism is tearing at the very fabric of our nation. It’s cloaked in seemingly different and even benign issues such as tax codes, school zonings and the allocation of federal resources. We too experience this racism in our own lives and in our own hearts—even in perhaps the smallest of ways. No one is truly beyond it. It’s a broken part of us that is twisted up in our own lives, our own histories and our own failings. But when we acknowledge its presence in our own lives and in our communities, we can join with the Psalmist and cry out: “forgive us, Lord, for we have sinned!” This first step of encounter and acknowledgment can begin the journey of reconciliation for our communities and our nation. Desmond Tutu [said it well](http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/truth%5Fand%5Freconciliation): “true reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. …It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing.” Today, we must be those men of Jericho. We must cry out and ask God to remove the masks that blind us. The road of encountering human suffering and the invisible and institutional violence that precedes it is uncomfortable, but it isn’t sterile. It will allow us to see the grittiness of the truth and to experience the gift of reconciliation and healing that will bind the wounds that divide us and allow us to move forward as a nation. _Christopher Hale is a senior fellow at_ [_Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good_](http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/)_. He helped lead national Catholic outreach for President Obama’s re-election campaign. You can follow him on Twitter_ [_@chrisjollyhale_](http://twitter.com/chrisjollyhale)_._ ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] What happened here was more than it convene can show us. I might not know the particular about it but I know that's a dead child. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ NOISE ] [ UNKNOWN ] My heart. Thank you. [ CROSSTALK ] [ MUSIC ] There's a hurt. There's a hurt. There's a whole lots of emotions out here that has nothing to do with the other night. There ain't Bloods and Crips out there plan on breaking in the store. [ MUSIC ] They didn't wake up this morning, when that happened, and say, look, keep your week open. This is emotions. What's been coming out of here, LBJ can send soldiers to Vietnam to guard Lady Bird, and they oughta be able to send troops here to guard these black birds. [ CROSSTALK ]. [ MUSIC ] If it wasn't for television, we black folks never would have had the civil rights stuff. 'Cuz people couldn't see it. There was no way in the world you could convince somebody that children could be knocked down. And that they would blow up a church and all of that. The difference between [ UNKNOWN ] and now. Is, we didn't have the technology to send it around the world immediately. [ INAUDIBLE ] No more of our sons. You saw people out there, and [ INAUDIBLE ] honking. They wasn't honking, but somebody was in the way. You see' em with their little children. You see old folks out there. They come to that spot. They're out there all night. Riding up and down the street. We want justice. They ain't there talking about a shoot out. They talking about a outrage. That's outrage. That's something happens inside of you. Go to the neighborhood, and the homes. Ride it out, the neighborhoods. Look like bombed out Europe after World War II. We see this, full it like something that just was one [ UNKNOWN ]. Nobody stopping the fight. That's what you witnessing here. 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