NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention says he was “stunned” that a New York grand jury cleared a white police officer in the videotaped choke hold death of an unarmed black man who was stopped for selling untaxed cigarettes.
The Rev. Russell Moore, president of the denomination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says: “A government that can choke a man to death on video for selling cigarettes is not a government living up to a biblical definition of justice.”
In a statement, Moore says there can be differences over enforcing the law in particular situations. But he says, “It’s high time we start listening to our African American brothers and sisters in this country when they tell us they are experiencing a problem.”
