Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope’s (MICAH) “Justice and Equity” Charter has a list of requests including wanting to cut ties with ICE and implement bias training for police officers that must be allowed to be observed by MICAH members. Turns out, many local churches are funding this group, including Cordova’s Hope Presbyterian Church. MICAH’s full charter can be found on their Facebook page. In addition, the entire list of MICAH’s partners can be seen on their website.
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Rev. Rufus Smith of Hope Church sent out an email to his congregation yesterday, and it included the following:“We have also been falsely accused for supporting an organization that purports to Defund Police. Hope Church is a member of M.I.C.A.H (Memphis Interfaith Coalition of Action and Hope), an interfaith religious group made up of Christians, Jews, Muslims and others who support the general aims of reconciliation, justice and economic equity. We contribute a $3,000 annual membership fee; however, we have made it crystal clear that as a Law Enforcement Friendly Congregation, we DO NOT FAVOR DEFUNDING Memphis Police or Sheriff Departments and abolishing the police! Neither are we aware that MICAH supports such anarchy in its official documents. Some types of police reforms include fund reallocation within the current police budget to more community-type policing and neighborhood sensitivity initiatives, but none include dismantling law enforcement.”
The issue is, the email contains nothing about how MICAH also supports cutting off relations with ICE. In addition, reallocating the funds of the police to other groups seems to not be supporting the police. The question hasn’t been answered: will Hope Church stop funding this organization?
According to the email, this does not appear to be the case. KWAM has reached out to Rufus Smith for comment and has been told by Hope’s director of communications and marketing that the request has been given to Pastor Smith. As of the publication of this article, KWAM is still waiting for Rev. Smith’s response.
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