TULSA, Okla. — It's a divisive time in our nation, President Trump supporters raided the Nation's Capitol on January 6th trying to halt the official vote count,
Now congress is moving to remove the president before President-Elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th.
2 Works for You spoke to local faith leaders about why the anger reached a boiling point and how the country can begin to heal.
Mohamed Herbert with the Islamic Society of Tulsa said, “it felt like everything just kind of hit the fan.”
Bill Hemm, Senior Pastor at Forest Park Christian Church, said, “this is the result. This didn’t just happen Wednesday, spontaneously. This has been going on for a long time.”
Five individuals died when citizens stormed the Capitol.
“We’ve got to stop vilifying the other, because then we have things like what happened on Wednesday where we have a crowd of people that have no regard for anything other than their own party and their own way of life and their own outlook and everyone else is the enemy," Hemm said.
Herbert said, “we have lost that kind of human touch. That human connection.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter Movement, the presidential election; those are just a few events in the past year that split American society in two.
“A lot of times we hold such strong views and we fight so passionately for something that we love, that we end up destroying even our own futures. We just go about doing it the wrong way," Herbert said.
Herbert said disagreement can lead to discussion, but it's often mistaken for discrimination.
“I think it’s going to be important that we just learn to have conversations,” Herbert said.
Hemm said the way toward togetherness is first to step back and take ownership.
“Those are the ones causing the divide. We are right and you are wrong. And that’s what’s causing the divide," Hemm said.
They ask for open-mindedness to pave the path back to American unity.
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