TEXAS PASTORS AND LEADERS APPEAL TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE

The Statement

The undersigned Texas Baptist pastors as initial signatories and those who will join with them wish to make public our concern for social justice in Texas focused on policing policies.

We affirm that most law officers in Texas are well intentioned, trained professionals who seek to do all in their power to treat persons fairly and with equal justice, risking their lives daily to do so.

We express our concern that urgent and widely known social justice concerns call for a Texas legislative review of police training and practices, especially the use of unnecessary force in encounters with African Americans. We acknowledge that the death of George Floyd has focused the attention of all informed persons of good will on this singular issue. Indeed, it has created an unprecedented focus on this problem that calls for both religious and government leaders to attend to the matter with renewed urgency.

We observe that the members of our own congregations have expressed their intense individual concern in unprecedented numbers and with unmatched intensity. They wish us to address this issue both in pulpit and in practice. In heretofore unsurpassed numbers they wish to see change.

In light of this, we the undersigned indicate our solidarity with thousands of persons in the 5,400 Texas Baptist churches, including 900 African-American churches, along with educational and institutional leaders of a number of Baptist universities, hospitals, schools, and eleemosynary institutions.

In this solidarity we call on the State of Texas to take legislative action in its 2021 session to review and as necessary legislate consistent policies binding on all law enforcement entities under its legislative oversight to prohibit the excessive use of force in police policies, especially the use of choke holds, that police be so trained, and that police be required by legislative law to report peers who use such abusive practices.

At the same time, we express our respect for and confidence in those thousands of police officers who daily act justly, fairly, and humanely in the discharge of their duties.