A Conversation On Reconciling Racial Tensions…James T. Meeks

“The only way out of the tensions that our country face is that black and white are going to have to sit down and find the solution together. The only reason that you (Bill Hybels) and I (James Meeks) are able to talk about race is because we trust each other. And we trust each other because in our heart we believe that the other person is just not out to get something or making up some story… We believe that we are decent people at heart. The first thing that you really have to do, black and white people, is to get to know each other…get to know each other. And then find a solution together. And so it’s going to take us all working together and it’s going to take us trusting each other to even want to figure it out." 

  --Rev. Dr. James Meeks, Founder and Pastor, Salem Baptist Church; Former Illinois State Senator

During the 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Weekend, Bill Hybels, who is Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois and also founder of the Willow Creek Association and Global Leadership Summit, invited Rev. James Meeks to Willow Creek Community Church to have a discussion about the racial problems and tensions that are plaguing Chicago, Illinois. Tensions in Chicago were recently exacerbated by the release of a video that captured the police shooting of an unarmed black youth. Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a police officer as he was walking away from a confrontation with police on October 20, 2014. Following the release of the video 13 months later, protests erupted in Chicago and major cities across the U.S. decrying this shooting as well as the recent police shootings and brutality of other unarmed people of color while interacting with police.
 
The quote above, while meant for the audience that was present during Bill Hybels and James Meeks’ conversation, is being shared because it is applicable to a wider audience. We must learn to live together or we will perish together.

To hear the conversation between Bill Hybels and James Meeks, click the link below:

Bill Hybels and James Meeks discuss racial problems in Chicago and U.S.