This pastoral message comes after a series of actions and reflections. On the evening of November 19, 2023, a month and a half after Hamas’ attack on Israel, Pullen held a peace and justice vigil and walk to pray for peace and an end to the violence. During the four Sundays in November, I led a Sunday group on “How to Talk about the Israel-Hamas Conflict.” Over 40 Pullenites attended this series. Throughout these past months, I have been in conversation with the wisdom figures in my life and interfaith colleagues about the conflict and how to respond as a person of faith. I have tried to listen, educate myself, and engage in prayerful reflection throughout my discernment process. On March 3 of this year, at the conclusion of my sermon, I shared what my personal response to the ongoing conflict would be until Resurrection Sunday. This pastoral message follows that sermon as the next step on my personal journey and as a pastor leading a community to be thoughtful and intentional in responding to the Israel-Hamas war.

I write the following words with caution. Words have the power to harm and to heal. It is my intention that the words I write in this brief paragraph will serve as healing salve to the brokenness that our world is experiencing and watching unfold in the Middle East.

The political agenda of the leader of Israel is killing innocent Palestinian people, and it’s gone on far too long. The political agenda of the leader of Hamas is killing innocent Jews, and it’s gone on far too long. The political leaders of my own country, the United States of America, are participating in this conflict in ways that are hurting innocent people, and it’s gone on far too long. All three of these political entities are not only carrying out atrocities against innocent people; they are sinning against the very God that they claim to worship. With every life lost in this conflict, we erase a part of the image of God in this world. Every single individual, whether Jew, Muslim, Christian, or of some other faith tradition, or no faith tradition, carries inside them the divine light of the Creator God. With every loss of life, the world becomes a darker place. With every life extinguished, God’s light dims in this world.

As people of faith or no faith, we have a moral responsibility to stop the dimming of God’s light in this world. The only way to do this is for the killing to stop. Therefore, I ask you to join me in calling on our political leaders here in the United States to end any role we have in supporting the killing of innocent people. As a person of faith, I ask you to join me in daily intentional prayer, praying that the political leaders of Israel, Hamas, and the United States will end the killing and that there will be an immediate ceasefire. I ask you to join me in searching out ways to send aid to all the innocent people suffering from the atrocities of this war, and for families to be restored to one another. And I ask you to join me in creating spaces and opportunities where people of all faiths come together to have hard conversations.