Chick-fil-A CEO, Dan Cathy, has called on white Christians to repent and fight for black Americans following a number of high profile black deaths at the hands of white police officers.
Conservative Christian, Cathy, said Christians could take advantage of this "special moment" in American history to repent of racism, and show their support for their black "brothers and sisters".
Cathy made the comments at Passion City Church in Atlanta. He commented: "I think we have to recognize we are in a very special moment right now that the answer is not just for this to go off the radar screen, go back to talking about COVID-19, to talk about world peace, the environment… politics is going to be coming up here this fall. I believe if we miss this moment we would have failed in our generation."
Protests have been seen across America and the world following the deaths of black Americans George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks.
Floyd has been the most high profile death, with viewers horrified at video footage of a white police officer pressing his knee down on Floyd's death for more than eight minutes, resulting in his death.
Brooks was killed in a Wendy's fast food parking lot. Police were called after he had fallen asleep in his car at the Wendy's fast food drive thru. However, after a long calm conversation, when the officers moved to arrest Brooks there was a scuffle, which resulted in Brooks being shot dead.
Brooks' death sparked renewed waves of protests in Atlanta and across various cities in the United States.
Cathy was joined in his conversation by Pastor Louie Giglio, and Christian rap artist Lecrae.
Lecrae spoke about his experiences with racial discrimination: "I don't need the media to tell me that this is a problem because it's a reality that I live."
He added, "The first time a gun was pulled on me by a police officer I was 13 years old. And I was unarmed. I was pushed on the ground. I had a knee in my back but this was just my reality."
He continued, "At 14 years old, because I was caught skipping school I was put on a gang list. I didn't know what was going on.
"My mother had to go to the police station to explain to them, 'just because he's skipping school does not mean he's out participating in gang activity,'" Lecrae described.
That was not his only experience with the police. Even since becoming a high profile Christian artist he has experienced aggressive tactics by police.
Lecrae described that "not too long ago" he was driving to one of his concerts when he was stopped by police. He said, "I was pulled over because I was in a rental car, I could assume there were all kinds of different reasons why but my car was strip searched and they tore all the seats out of my car and I told them I'm not doing anything wrong and they still didn't believe me."
He added, "The car was strip searched and they said 'no dog's alerted, there's drugs here' and they found nothing and then they left me to put all the seats back in the car and move on about my business."
The Christian music artist also told how he was once pulled over by police three times when driving through a region of Texas. He said that on each stop he was never given a compelling reason why he was being stopped.
He said, "It left me wondering what in the world is going on. Why is this? What's going on here?
"So I said all that to say, most personal experiences, and I can name countless others of all my friends, all my black friends of course, inform our relationship with law enforcement and help shape the way we are perceiving everything that's going on right now."
Chick-fil-A CEO, Cathy, replied, "I can only imagine the indignity, the emotional indignity, I can only imagine it."
Cathy urged Christians to stand up and support black Americans in their fight against racial discrimination and injustice. He revealed that recently he had been having conversations with black Chick-fil-A staff members, and through that has learned about the "subtleties" of the indignities and injustices being suffered by many in the black communities.
"Our silence is so huge at this time. We cannot be silent. Somebody has to fight and God has so blessed our city, but it's shameful how we let things get so out of whack," Cathy said.
He added, "I think before we start to jump into action we need a period of contrition and a broken heart in the city of Atlanta and a sense of real identity. Not just criticize the people that are burning down that restaurant last night."
He said, "We got a heart for the Rayshard Brooks and the others … We've got to have a sense of empathy of what led to this. This is the tip of the iceberg of incredible amounts of frustration and pain that the whole spectrum of the African American community, that somewhere or another that can quickly illustrate Lecrae, just as you did, that most of us white people are just simply out of sight out of mind. We're oblivious to it. We cannot let this moment pass."
