Of your leadership, and for just holding us up these days. We need you. We need your voice. We need to hear the word. We need to be together. Good morning church. Good morning to the first lady robin and your son, for hosting me today, and for the warm welcome. It is so good to be back in detroit, michigan. I also want to recognize a dear, dear friend. And someone who is not only a leader for michigan but is a national leader. We are all thinking of her this morning. Sending our prayers and love to her. Thank you all. And everybody from your car, your home, we are all together. This sunday morning. We are altogether. In these times, i know pastor, we feel, we are standing six feet apart and wearing a mask. We can only see half of somebodys face. Lets always remember, lets always remember we are all together and we are all gods children and we are going to get through this together. So, i know this is not how we usually do church, but it is a reminder, pastor, that faith always finds its way, and we need to always feel the grace of god and to be at church, even if it is in our car or at home. So that is what we do. And dont we all especially need church right now . The feeling of togetherness that comes with being a part of a community, a place where we can express our fidelity to one another and our service to all gods children. For me, church has always been a source of strength and a place for reflection, a place to study the teachings of our lord and a place to feel grounded in a world that feels increasingly complex. And, needless to say, here in 2020, the world is plenty complex, from the pandemic, to the recession, to historic wildfires and floods. Of course, the longoverdue reckoning on Racial Injustice in america. And things certainly are not easy right now. So many of us are carrying burdens that are seen and unseen by others. So many of us are spending time in reflection and prayer these days. And in my private conversations with god, i usually ask for strength and protection and guidance to do the right thing. And this is a time, indeed, to draw on the values of our faith love and kindness, honesty, and truth, not only as individuals but as a community and as a country. When he still was a doctoral student at boston university, pastor talked about him earlier. Dr. Martin luther king told a group of parishioners the real problem is that, through our scientific genius, we have made the world a neighborhood, but, through our moral and spiritual genius, we have failed to make it a brotherhood. So lets think about that. With all the callousness and cruelty that we have recently seen around us, would anyone deny that dr. Kings words ring true today . When babies have been separated from their mothers, when we desecrate the planet that god has entrusted to us, when, in the wealthiest country in the world, we allow millions of children to go hungry. When we fear for the lives of our black babies as they grow simply because of the color of their skin. We are all in a lot of pain right now for all of these reasons, and especially every community. But i think what the past few months and these last few years have taught us is that we have no choice but to heed the teachings and the words of dr. King. If we are serious about making our world a brotherhood and sisterhood, then our faith cannot remain just a matter of personal sustenance. It cannot be only about our personal needs. Our faith must present a challenge for us to think about how we live among and treat others. Our faith, and i was raised this way, must be a verb. We must live it in our actions. As once was said, you can pray until you faint, but if you do not try to get up and do something, god is not going to put it in your lap. So that is the kind of faith i was taught early on, pastor, and i can still remember sitting with my sister maya in our sunday best in oakland, california, and praising the word and our lord, but understanding that when we left church we were expected to live and put in action the teachings. And my earliest memories of the bibles teaching were of a loving god, a god who asks us to stand up and serve for others, especially those who are in need, the least of these, especially those who are outside of the rooms of power, but belong in those rooms. Our loving god wants us to speak up for the voiceless, care for the needy, and seek justice for the oppressed. He asks us to see each other as he sees us. In fact, you know, in many african countries, when you meet someone for the first time, the greeting is not pleased to meet you. The greeting is i see you. I see you. In all that you are. I do believe god wants for us to see each other and i do believe at the most basic level that is what it means to live our faith. And even in this moment of trial and testing, as i look out at this congregation, and i travel around the country, i see people who are rising to this moment. I see people who are filled with strength and with Purpose Health care workers, truck drivers, Grocery Store clerks, care givers, and teachers. Postal workers, poll workers. People who know in a moment of crisis real leaders step up and figure out their place to support and to help others. And to alleviate pain and suffering. That is a sign of true leadership. And people who understand, as the Good Samaritan teaches us, that we must look out for our neighbors. And we must understand that our neighbor is not just the person who shares a zip code with us. Or drives the same kind of car that we do. Not just the person has the same school of our children. Our neighbor is the stranger by the side of the road. And understanding, then, that if we are to live gods purpose for us, we must see that person by the side of the road, and in their face, see a neighbor. So, let us rejoice in the people of all faiths who, living that word, swarmed to airports to protest the ban against our muslim brothers and sisters. Let us celebrate with people of all races who took to the streets to say, yes, black lives matter. The people, who have taken to the streets when there are those who want to take away health care and obamacare and have traveled the country saying, see my child and understand to Love Thy Neighbor is to love my child and to understand their right to access to health care. This is how people are stepping up and speaking out all over our country. And so, yes, as dr. King said, our moral genius may be lagging behind our scientific genius, and yes, we still have a lot of work to do to build that brotherhood and sisterhood, to to build that beloved community, and yet we will get there. We are getting there. And we will get there. So long as we keep working and fighting for the ideals we hold dear, born out of our faith, so long as we keep rejecting the forces that would divide us, and so long as we keep doing what we are doing here today, and drawing closer together, even from a distance. And so long as we keep holding on to our faith. For it is by faith and not by sight. So thank you all so very much for welcoming me today. Pastor, thank you, thank you and the first family, for all the love you have given me and this community, and thank you, everyone, for your prayers. I feel them every day. God bless. [applause] the competition is on. Cspanrt of this year video edition. Will be High School Students be a part of the National Conversation . Make a documentary and explore the issues that you want to president and congress to discuss and 2021. Be bold and show supporting and opposing points of view. Be a winner and earned a total of 4000 and total cash prizes. 20,it videos until genera 2021. At be informed, youll find the competition rules and you can find more information at a roadside. More information at our website. You are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Cabled by americas Television Company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. The National Press club hosted a virtual discussion on diversity and inclusion in journalism following a summer of nationwide protests over excessive use of force by police and Racial Injustice