Love your neighbor as yourself.
Who is my neighbor?
Whoever neighborhood watch says he is, apparently.
Was Martin a neighbor? Absolutely not. Did he belong there? No. Would it be better if he wasn't dead? Possibly. What do YOU personally know? Not enough to be dismissing the verdict of a jury of their peers, particularly in a sermon. How about some healing and reconciliation? How about reminding your congregation that they were not in the jury box, and they did not hear the evidence that persuaded six women, some of them mothers, to acquit a Hispanic man in the death of a child.
As for your snide reference to the neighborhood watch, basic Christian decency would mandate giving the man credit for trying to help his neighbors and protect them! If we use the same logic that was used against Zimmerman on you, I can extrapolate from your tendency to reference your clerical status in posts on public affairs or politics, that just as Zimmerman became a watchman to feel important and act like a cop, so too have you become a minister in order to feel important and to use that status to give yourself the aura of authority. Or we could assume that both of you had good intentions and wanted to help your fellow man.
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*