In Tense Times, Words of Comfort from a Queens Church that Lost a Police Officer

Congregants at a church in Queens know too well the pain that Dallas is going through, as it mourns the loss of five police officers who were killed by a gunman angry about the police shootings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Just before Christmas in 2014, an assailant who was enraged by the police killings of black men in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri shot two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, in their patrol car in Bedford Stuyvesant.

Ramos was an active member of Christ Tabernacle Church in Glendale, Queens. On Sunday, congregants were wrestling with grief and horror at all the violence of the past week.

Pastor Chris Durso referred to "tragedy after tragedy" as he urged the congregation, "don't respond in hate, don't respond in arrogance, always respond in love."

He also acknowledged tension is high right now, but "the greatest way to break this tension is with the love of Jesus."

The church is in a former grand movie palace on the edge of Brooklyn, and its services are joyful celebrations with a large choir and electric instruments. Its congregants include people of many different races and ethnic groups; members said there are also law enforcement officers as well as former felons.

Many said they embraced the church's message of healing through prayer. "As a person of color, it hurts my heart," said Deana Evans, referring to the killings of black men and police. She said she also has family members who are police officers.

Several congregants lamented divisions they see between police and protesters. Carlos Soto said "protesting is good as long as it's done peacefully," but added "we do have to understand that police officers have a rough job." 

His wife, Tiffany Soto, said she saw that when she worked as a 911 operator and heard officers having to "evaluate what's going on in seconds."

A former federal corrections officer, William Mojica, said he knew Ramos from the church. The recent killings of black men by police, captured on video, were "inhumane," he said. "They murdered those civilians."

His girlfriend, Janette Alicia, said people now need to "come together as a family and pray" without breaking the law. 

Carmen Santana put it more bluntly, as she also called for prayer.

"We're either going to have a civil rights movement, we're going to have a civil war or we're going to have a revolution," she said. "We can't count on our politicians to make it any better or any different. If that were the case, we wouldn't be where we are today."

Teaching pastor Ralph Castillo said that's where the church plays a powerful role. The year and a half ago, he helped lead the funeral for Ramos which drew thousands of people, including police officers from around the country. As he thought about his counterparts in Dallas, who will be making funeral plans for police officers in the days ahead, he said the nation will be watching and he offered words of advice.

"Pastors have the tall order of bringing words of comfort and maybe some perspective," he said. "I also think there's an opportunity to lead the conversation. Because they're in the redemptive business. I find that the church could be the neutral spot where people could come with their anger and their angst and maybe work towards some kind of solution."