Missouri interfaith leaders say spiritual power ‘is greater than tear gas’

Mark Kelly Tyler, a pastor at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, speaks into a megaphone.

August 20 at 10:56 PM
By Chico Harlan

Clayton, Mo. — About 10 miles from Ferguson, an interfaith group gathered Wednesday at dusk in front of the St. Louis County Department of Justice Services. They marched from a nearby high school, tailed by police.

“We must be an intimidating group, because they barricaded the sidewalks,” said Mark Kelly Tyler, a pastor at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. “They must have seen all these preachers, imams and rabbis coming out.”

Their spiritual power, Tyler said, “is greater than tear gas.”

The religious leaders had come from across the United States in recent days to demand what they described as justice for Michael Brown, the unarmed teen shot by a police officer on Aug. 9. Tyler said the group of about 200 was “only loosely organized,” but its members shared the sentiment that the events in Ferguson represent an American, not a St. Louis-specific, problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/20/missouri-interfaith-leaders-say-spiritual-power-is-greater-than-tear-gas/