In Philadelphia, Shock Over S.C. Church Massacre, and A Warning
By Dan Wing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The African-American community in Philadelphia is reacting with understandable outrage to Wednesday night's attack on a church in Charleston, SC.
Today, the president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity said he feels that race relations in the United States will only get worse without action.
The Rev. Terrence Griffith feels that a storm is brewing across the country "that will challenge the moral authority of America as the citadel of righteousness in the world. And we cannot seek to put fires out elsewhere while our house is burning, and the fact of the matter is, our house is indeed burning."
While offering his condolences to the families of those killed in Wednesday night's attack, Griffith says he feels violence toward black men and women has been spawned by a lack of respect shown in Congress and the media toward President Obama.
"The hateful, vitriolic language often used on television against the president serves as, in my opinion, an enzyme for hateful, racist, and dastardly acts committed against African-Americans," Griffith told KYW Newsradio this morning.
He says that on the surface, race relations may seem better here in Philadelphia than elsewhere, but more open dialogue on the issue is needed.
"Until we begin to really have a conversation and really discuss and continually talk about these issues," he said, "I think one day it's just going to explode."
But, Rev. Griffith says, there is hope.
"As Martin Luther King said, we really need to promote redemptive goodwill to all men. So we pray for the day when there will be peace on this Earth, where we'll all, as brothers and sisters, walk up the classic marble steps, arm in arm, in the spirit of a united people."