Religion

Kenyan Cardinal Urges Compassion for Extremist Killers

Published

12 years ago

April 9, 2015

A woman sobs into her scarf after she viewed the body of a relative killed in last Thursday’s attack on Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, April 8, 2015. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through the university at dawn Thursday, killing over 140 people in the group’s deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Some relatives of students who were mercilessly gunned down by Islamic militants said Wednesday they would pray for forgiveness for the killers, responding to a Catholic archbishop who visited a morgue where victims’ bodies are being kept.

Cardinal John Njue, the archbishop of Nairobi, prayed with some of the families with a son or daughter, nephew or niece who died in the April 2 assault on Garissa University College by al-Shabab, the extremist group based in neighboring Somalia. Four gunmen killed 148 people and then also died when Kenyan security forces regained control of the campus later in the day.

“You should pray for your enemies, so that they can change,” said Teresa Kiiru, whose cousin, 22-year-old Obeddy Oking, died in the attack. “As Christians, we are told to forgive those who sin against us.”

Many family members have described, sometimes bitterly, the death of a child in the Garissa slaughter as not just an emotional blow, but also the loss of an “investment” into which they had poured money and hopes. Making it to university is a big achievement in Kenya, where many people don’t get opportunities that open the way to a financially secure life.

Some home villages of the dead students, seen as bright stars who were making their communities proud, are reportedly experiencing collective grief. On Wednesday, the morgue began releasing bodies to grieving families, who prepared to take the coffins on long bus journeys for burial at home.

“Take courage and do not give up,” Njue told relatives sitting under a tent at Nairobi’s Chiromo Funeral Parlour. “These are the challenges that come in our lives. Some of them are most probably too heavy … heavier than we can be able to bear, humanly speaking. But let us try what we can.”

The cardinal said he hoped the Garissa attack would become a “moment of re-examination” of ways to improve security for Kenyans following numerous allegations that the government response was slow and initially ineffective. He appealed for a “process of compassion” for the perpetrators, despite their terrible deed.

“We pray then for all those who are concerned with this,” he said. “We are not dealing with animals, we are dealing with human beings … If this were to happen to them, I don’t think any of them would ever be joyful.”

The message resonated with Evelyn Wakholi, whose 18-year-old daughter, Milly Yonbo, died in the attack.

“The Bible says: ‘Do not judge,'” Wakholi said. “It’s painful, but what can we do?”

Then she wondered aloud why the killers, one of whom has been identified as the son of a Kenyan government official, had to kill young people rather than the elderly. Youths, Wakholi declared, could withstand the suffering, and unlike their elders, have yet to experience the fullness of life.

Milly’s aunt, Josephine Shiyuka, said her Christian faith dictated forgiveness for the killers, noting Jesus Christ forgave those who crucified him. Those who helped the gunmen might still turn back from their violent creed, she said.

“If they’re living, they still have time to change,” she said.

Al-Shabab, however, has warned of more attacks after the Garissa bloodshed. It said “Kenyan cities will run red with blood,” according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed a sharp response to last week’s attack. Kenyan warplanes attacked suspected militant positions in Somalia, and the government said Wednesday that it was freezing accounts of organizations and individuals suspected of financing Islamic extremists.

The freeze applies to 85 companies and individuals identified because of suspicious transactions, said senior treasury official Kamau Thugge. The list includes organizations dealing in remittances to Somalia.

After praying with families at the morgue, the cardinal said in an interview with The Associated Press that parents of the dead were going through a “very, very trying time” and that what the attackers did was “really horrible,” but he held out hope that militants would repent.

“Let us pray for them, that they may come to a point of undergoing a metamorphosis” in which they realize “they are dealing with life,” Njue said.

However the bereaved father of Oking, the 22-year-old student who died in Garissa, said he did not have such hope.

“I don’t have any compassion for the terrorists, because I took my child to school. Today, I am taking him dead,” said the father, John Wanyonyi Okodoi.

“I had invested a lot in that child; from childhood, high school to university,” he said. “Even his brothers — I dropped them for the sake of this child because he performed so well. I asked the family, ‘Let him go so he would come and help us.’ Today we are completely desperate. We have no future. We are only being given hope, but the gateway to see that hope is bleak.”

___

AP writer Tom Odula contributed to this report from Nairobi.

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Practitioners of African Traditional Spirituality Offer Ancestral Reverence Ritual Oct. 31

The Council for Global Ancestral Reverence will host “Ancestral Souls Rising” from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, featuring a three-day gathering of prayer and discussion. Led by elders and priests across the African diaspora, the seventh annual ritual honors those lost without traditional rites while addressing current social challenges. This year’s event connects ancestral wisdom with contemporary issues, including a two-day conversation inspired by Afro-Beat music focused on Black community solidarity and the sacred importance of voting. Read more for details on the ritual schedule and participants.

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Oakland native Nedra Williams writes sacred symbols on the ground in San Leandro. Courtesy photo.

By Special to The Post

The Council for Global Ancestral Reverence (C4GAR), a group of elders who practice African traditional spirituality, will lead a three-day gathering of prayer and discussion from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Called ‘Ancestral Souls Rising,’ the council members and 21 priests will lead the prayers from many parts of the African diaspora: Africa, Portugal, and across the U.S. from Maryland to the Bay Area.

Now in its seventh year, the annual ritual began during the 2020 pandemic when hundreds of thousands of people died alone and were buried in mass graves without rites and rituals according to loved ones’ traditions.

This prayer event was and is intended to give peace to the departed and comfort for the living who still mourn. Each year, we gather names of new ancestors from living elders to elevate them into the “Great Hall of the Titans.”

In ensuing years, C4GAR added themes to the prayer gathering that referenced current events. In 2024, before the consequential presidential election, C4GAR called on people to vote, invoking the memory of Civil Rights Movement heroes and heroines like John Lewis, who urged “Good Trouble,” and Fannie Lou Hamer, who famously declared that she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The day of global Prayer on Oct. 31 will be followed by a two-day conversation inspired by “The Blueprint,” an Afro-Beat song by UyiosaEl, to write our new blueprint that supports solidarity and action in the Black community.

“Our elders have, for many generations, known the power of prayer, ritual and breath,” the council said in a statement.

It was and is their intention, then, to use the cultural wisdom, the gift of prayer “and the most sacred thing we have, our breath, to send energy into the world that invokes and honors our ancestors,” the council statement continued.

“Doing this creates a vibration that protects us and employs their ancient wisdom for the well-being of our communities,” the elders said.

The councilmembers, all over the age of 60, recognize that what is now history for so many was once their lived experience. And that history, those joys and sorrows, are now in their bodies.

To them, the uttered prayer and the sacred breath are oaths to an unfolding future that people can still shape.

The council members are Dr. Iyabeji Cathy Royal, Iyalocha Jennifer Dillard, Manbo Charlene Desir (Florida), Nana Sula Spirit (Louisiana), Baba Obafemi Feyemi, Ohen Nedra T. Williams, and Iyalocha Wanda Ravernell-Stewart Emeritus (Oakland).

This year, they also encourage everyone within their reach to VOTE because it is not only a secular and political act, but a sacred one. Remember, the ancestors were denied that right and died for it.

For tickets, go to:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/council-for-global-ancestral-reverence-presents-ancestral-souls-rising-26-tickets-2003127345814?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Black History

OP-ED: The Black Church Writes AI’s Next Chapter

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — I implore my fellow faith leaders to use these tools. Start now and use them with wisdom. We count on each and every one of you to make sure our communities help write the next chapter of this story. This rapid change is not as unfamiliar as it may sound. My first understanding of AI came from using a calculator for the first time in grade school. We did not call it AI, but it was a tool that helped me work through mathematical equations hours more efficiently.

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For generations, the Black church has stood strong in our communities through every historical change this country has experienced. During the civil rights movement and in recent times, faith leaders have helped uplift Black sanctuaries to register voters, keep food pantries open for people in need, and sit with families in hospital rooms in their most desperate moments. When our people faced new trials, they could always look to our faith leaders and the church to lean in to help us be included in these transformative changes.

Artificial intelligence is the latest revolutionary change to impact our society, and much like other transformations before us, underserved communities often get left behind.

I was recently featured in a report entitled “Faith, Community & AI” and it found that people send ChatGPT more than 70 million messages a week about religion. Nearly 22 million involve studying sacred texts, and 16 million ask about religious practices and holy days. Our members make up part of those numbers. They bring questions of faith to these tools every day.

Pastors have noticed, and according to a September 2025 Lifeway Research survey of 1,003 Protestant pastors, 42 percent said they use or experiment with AI in ministry. I count myself among them.

I write my sermons by hand, through prayer and study. When I finish a draft, I ask ChatGPT this question: “Where might this sermon become unclear or difficult to follow for someone early in their walk of faith?” It shows me gaps in my preparation, like where I incorrectly assumed everyone would know the context of who the Pharisees were. Then, change comes from my own pen, not the robot. The tool helps me reach the person in the back pew while the message still comes from me.

If I could have my wish, our whole community would take a similar posture. We must use these tools, understand them, and most importantly be present to help shape them if we want to be included in the coming change.

I implore my fellow faith leaders to use these tools. Start now and use them with wisdom. We count on each and every one of you to make sure our communities help write the next chapter of this story. This rapid change is not as unfamiliar as it may sound. My first understanding of AI came from using a calculator for the first time in grade school. We did not call it AI, but it was a tool that helped me work through mathematical equations hours more efficiently.

It starts with training; there is no involvement without understanding. Free AI trainings have begun in our churches and community centers across the nation. Every faith leader should sign up and, when possible, encourage members of your congregations to join you. By learning how to use AI, we can better understand what it can do, make up our own minds about its impact, and have a say in how it shapes our communities.”

Next, we must be at the tables where the builders of these tools make decisions. Presence is the first step toward understanding, and that gap is only bridged through a coordinated effort. How can any tool serve a community well if that community is not part of the conversation? Our traditions, needs, and concerns must be accounted for, and Black faith leaders are already making that happen. OpenAI’s recent Faith report states plainly that AI should never become an arbiter of religious truth. I fully intend to hold the company to its word, and the most effective way I can do that is from inside.

I will close with this––we must diligently protect what only the church can give. A believer in Seoul, Korea quoted in the report warned, “if you pour every struggle into a private chat, your pastor and your friends may never learn you need help.” A chatbot will not sit with a grieving family or pray with you at two in the morning. As we adopt this technology, it is up to us to ensure it keeps people connected to each other and to their church.

Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey is senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York.

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Black History

OP-ED: The Black Church Writes AI’s Next Chapter

Published

3 days ago

October 18, 2026

Post News Group

Artificial intelligence is the latest revolutionary change to impact our society, and much like other transformations before us, underserved communities often get left behind.

Pastors have noticed, and according to a September 2025 Lifeway Research survey of 1,003 Protestant pastors, 42 percent said they use or experiment with AI in ministry. I count myself among them.

Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey is senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York.