Countering Hate with Love
Here's some footage of our prayer vigil at CBST. You can see me all over the place, on the right hand side of the screen in a reddish (really pink) shirt, and then I'm leading the service at the podium with My Two Rabbis. It was a moving show of solidarity; not only were CBSTers there, but also people who lived in the area, members of other synagogues, members of the Church of the Holy Apostles (which is where we meet on Friday nights), and others who felt compelled to unite against hate.
I was in charge of leading the service, and then leading the singing when we marched closer to where Westboro Baptist Church (all six of them) were standing. My favorite part was, after fifteen minutes of singing Psalm 150 (Halleluyah, essentially), when I led us in my own version of "Down by the Riverside." My verses were (as we were, in fact, down by the riverside): "I'm gonna lay down my signs of hate, down by the riverside..." (because words are a weapon, too.) And then I followed that with, "I'm gonna sing songs of love and peace, down by the riverside," which is what we were doing!
It was a beautiful moment of inspiring community, even if triggered by such vile hatred. We also raised $10,000 for CBST in our phelps-a-thon! Hooray!
Here's the link to the video: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/101114/congregation-counters-hate-protest-with-message-of-peace/Default.aspx
I was in charge of leading the service, and then leading the singing when we marched closer to where Westboro Baptist Church (all six of them) were standing. My favorite part was, after fifteen minutes of singing Psalm 150 (Halleluyah, essentially), when I led us in my own version of "Down by the Riverside." My verses were (as we were, in fact, down by the riverside): "I'm gonna lay down my signs of hate, down by the riverside..." (because words are a weapon, too.) And then I followed that with, "I'm gonna sing songs of love and peace, down by the riverside," which is what we were doing!
It was a beautiful moment of inspiring community, even if triggered by such vile hatred. We also raised $10,000 for CBST in our phelps-a-thon! Hooray!
Here's the link to the video: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/101114/congregation-counters-hate-protest-with-message-of-peace/Default.aspx