Religious leaders from around the country Friday attacked the "senseless shootings" this week, including the ambush that killed five Dallas police officers on Thursday, and called on other pastors to "do whatever we can do to help bring America together."
"Once again our nation is faced with the reality of senseless shootings," said Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, and Ronnie Floyd, the immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Young heads the largest historically black denomination in the United States, while Floyd served the nation's biggest Christian evangelical denomination.
Their statement referenced the deaths of Alton Sterling on Tuesday in Baton Rouge, La., Philando Castile on Wednesday outside St. Paul, Minn., and the five Dallas police offices on Thursday.
"With the tragic and devastating news of these recent killings, along with the seven others who were injured in Dallas, we are reminded that violence and retaliation are never the solution to our frustrations and anger," the pastors said. "Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are extended to the family of each victim.
"May all know that we are resolved as spiritual leaders in this nation to do whatever we can do to help bring America together.
"May the wisdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. provide us the needed encouragement today: 'Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.'
"Now is the time to come together in love and unity, praying for America," Floyd and Young said.
In Texas, El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz, who once served in Dallas, called for calm and prayer.
"My heart is broken to hear that last night, in my former home of Dallas, once again violence has been employed against innocent people, this time against police officers who have dedicated their lives to protecting us, men and women who were guarding a peaceful protest," Seitz said,
The El Paso Times reports. "In a week in which the country is rightly horrified by what appears to have been unprovoked shootings of people of color, the cycle of violence has continued to exact its terrible toll.
"The temptation in the face of this violence is to further arm ourselves and to further militarize our society," he said. "The more guns proliferate in our communities, the more often guns will be resorted to in times of anger and stress with long-lasting consequences."
The Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the megachurch First Baptist Dallas, said that Thursday's sniper attack was "symptomatic of the lawlessness in our country that is being fueled by a disrespect for police — a disrespect that should be strongly denounced by all leaders, beginning with the President of the United States.
"Please pray for the Dallas Police Department and their families.
"The Bible says in Romans 13 that law-enforcement officers are ministers of God, assent to do good and punish those that do evil.
"We ought to remember that God has ordained police officers to be his instruments to keep order in our society — and it is important that we always respect police officers," Jeffress said.
The Rev. T.D. Jakes, senior pastor of another Dallas megachurch, the Potter's House, said at a downtown interfaith prayer service that "today is a very solemn occasion and yet it is a hopeful occasion.
"It is a time that the eyes of the nation and the eyes of the world have turned their gaze toward our city," he said,
according to WFAA-TV. "We are being tested down to the core.
"Not just to see if we can survive the atrocities that have confronted us last night, but to see if we will rebound and reinvigorate ourselves in such a way that we come up a better city than we were before.
"What we faced in Dallas did not start in Dallas," Jakes said. "It is a reflection of our country, of our times, of cities around the world and around our country that are in peril."