Whereas many – together with a number of nationwide, state and native legislators, and members of the clergy – are very reluctant to publicly voice their opinion on the Israel-Hamas warfare for concern of reprisals, Brooklyn Pastor Louis Hilton Straker, Jr. doesn’t hesitate to touch upon the battle.
Pastor Straker – who was born in Brooklyn to Vincentian Sir Louis H. Straker, Sr., a former deputy prime minister and international affairs minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidadian-born Girl Linda Straker – instructed Caribbean Life completely early Wednesday morning that he additionally needs “a everlasting cease-fire and a peaceable return of all” hostages.
However Pastor Straker made it clear that his views are “private and should not replicate or symbolize” these of Reflections Church, within the East Flatbush part of Brooklyn, the place he’s the founder and lead pastor, or the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, Inc., in any other case referred to as “The GodSquad”, the place he’s an energetic member and serves as chairman of the Board.
Pastor Straker mentioned “The GodSquad” is “the premier clergy-led, anti-gun violence group within the Metropolis of New York,” below its Public Security Coalition, combating gun violence and different associated points inside the confines of the 67th Precinct in Brooklyn and all through the town.
“I’m exhausting pressed to search out any morally upstanding and conscionable human being that may truthfully justify the vicious assault on the lives of harmless males, girls and youngsters by the hands of the terrorist group referred to as Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023,” mentioned Pastor Straker, who additionally serves on the Advisory Council for the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Heart in East Flatbush and “a proud member” of Mayor Eric Adams’ Caribbean Advisory Council, below the auspices of the New York Metropolis Workplace of the Mayor – Group Affairs Unit.
[Shirley Anita Chisholm, née St. Hill – who was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 30, 1924 and died on Jan. 1, 2005 – was the daughter of Barbadian and Guyanese immigrants.
According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, in 1968, Chisholm became the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress, representing, for seven terms – from 1969 to 1983 – the then 12th congressional district that focused primarily on the Bedford–Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. In 1972, Chisholm distinguished herself in becoming the pioneering, first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the US and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Wikipedia said].
“This heinous act of violence not solely destroyed the lives of roughly 1200 folks, but additionally the household and family members who mourn their loss,” mentioned Pastor Straker, a group activist, who’s “preventing for justice and the human dignity of all these created within the picture of God.”
“My coronary heart goes out to everybody enduring unimaginable grief as a result of lives that had been stolen not solely by the use of fatality, but additionally some 250 individuals who had been taken as hostages throughout one of many worst terrorist assaults in trendy historical past,” he added. “Sadly, this bloodshed was met with much more bloodshed, predominantly by the use of Israeli forces’ counter-attack in response to Oct. 7.”
As any nation, Pastor Straker mentioned Israel has a proper to defend herself, however requested, “In opposition to whom? Is it in opposition to Hamas or is it in opposition to all Palestine?”
Because the demise toll rises in Gaza, with greater than 23,000 killed and over 58,000 injured, he mentioned many are left to ponder these questions.
“Who’s the enemy?” Pastor Straker requested. “When you ask a majority of individuals with good conscience, they might emphatically declare Hamas because the enemy. Nevertheless, of the roughly 23,000 Palestinians killed, Israeli forces estimate 8,000 Hamas troopers have been captured or killed.
“This has left many to marvel, how does the Israeli authorities justify the disproportionate quantity of civilian casualties, all within the title of ‘nationwide safety protection’, and the need to wipe out Hamas?” he additional requested.
Pastor Straker mentioned the demise toll of harmless Palestinians has brought about many to query whether or not that is “retributive actions taken in opposition to Hamas or a mass genocide of the Palestinian folks.”
“The reply to this isn’t so simple as what one would see with their two eyes,” he mentioned, including that “with out the correct perspective, one would possibly conclude that that is an Israeli-Palestinian battle, when, in truth, it’s not a battle with Palestine, however an Israeli-Hamas warfare with large civilian deaths.”
Pastor Straker mentioned “it’s no secret that Hamas has been utilizing Palestinians as human shields in hopes of evading Israeli counter-attacks, believing Israel’s discretion in minimizing civilian casualties would outcome of their favor.
“Nevertheless, many query if that’s really so,” he mentioned, noting that the media protection, by way of social networks which have flooded timelines and information feeds globally, “has been inundated with images and video footage of heart-wrenching pictures of harmless Palestinians, who’ve grow to be casualties of warfare simply as a lot as these whose lives had been initially focused on Oct. 7.
“This has resulted in a worldwide outcry for a everlasting cease-fire and an finish to the siege on Gaza,” added Pastor Straker, stating that protests from all world wide have erupted, “many in help of the Palestinian folks, whose lives have been thrown into chaos attributable to Israeli air strikes and floor assaults which have minimize off priceless assets and destroyed over 100,000 buildings.”
Consequently, he mentioned this has created “nice pressure worldwide — some violent — between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian supporters.”
Pastor Straker mentioned the battle has additionally “stifled the voices of these of fine conscience in concern of being labeled antisemitic or Islamophobic for talking up for what they imagine is reality.”
Moreover, he mentioned many politicians have “turned a blind eye to the injustice, as they’ve grow to be beholden to the help of 1 explicit group over one other.”
Pastor Straker, subsequently, infused the views of slain US civil rights chief, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “who as soon as mentioned, ‘Our lives start to finish the day we grow to be silent about issues that matter’, that ‘Injustice wherever is a menace to justice in every single place’, and ‘The day we see the reality and stop to converse is the day we start to die.’”
“But, within the midst of all of this, harmless folks proceed to undergo and hostages are nonetheless unaccounted for,” Pastor Straker mentioned. “From day one, I imagine the first focus on this tragic ordeal has been misplaced, and continues to overshadow the return of the hostages kidnapped and separated from their household and houses.
“This could have been paramount in Israel’s mission,” he posited, noting {that a} international name for a “humanitarian pause” resulted in a week-long cease-fire that resulted in 110 hostages being launched.
“Why this was not pursued initially is past me,” Pastor Straker mentioned. “I’m a agency believer that Hamas have to be stopped and eradicated, as with all terrorist organizations regardless of the place they’re.
“However we should convey those that had been kidnapped residence now!” he urged, declaring that the bloodshed of harmless Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza have “produced nothing however outrage, division, strife, envy, hate and a deeper polarization of individuals in opposition to each other.
“In truth, whereas the Israeli Authorities believes that it’s doing what’s most prudent in destroying Hamas at any value, my concern is that they possibly radicalizing an entire new technology as a result of unjust killing of harmless folks,” added Pastor Straker, stating that “it’s time for Israel to reevaluate its mission and general technique and contemplate that, which is able to end in a everlasting cease-fire and a peaceable return of all kidnapped on that dreadful day. #BringThemHomeNow.”
Extra about Pastor Straker
After spending the primary 5 years of his life raised in his mom’s hometown of Port-of-Spain, the Trinidad and Tobago capital, Pastor Straker mentioned he returned to the US to start his formal schooling, and is a byproduct of the New York Metropolis Public College and Metropolis College of New York (CUNY) programs.
Raised within the church his complete life, Pastor Straker mentioned he was delicate to the voice of the Holy Spirit, calling him to the workplace of pastor, in 2007, on the Reflections Church.
He mentioned the church started with 9 adults in his lounge, “with little to no cash.”
“However, by God’s grace, the ministry has now efficiently grown, touching the lives of a whole lot of individuals,” mentioned Pastor Straker, including that congregants have been enriched by his highly effective preaching/educating, and still have been empowered by way of the assorted packages and seminars designed to reinforce the lives of individuals in the neighborhood and past.
At present, below Pastor Straker’s management, the ministry is actively engaged in a multimillion-dollar mission to construct a brand new church residence that, he mentioned, “might be a useful resource to the group, equipping lives for this world and prayerfully the world to return.”
Past his quite a few ministerial duties, committees and group partnerships, Pastor Straker mentioned he “really enjoys” lending his prophetic voice, as a fellow panelist on JRG Leisure’s “The RESET,” each Friday morning at 10:00, with a bunch of esteemed panelists and over 750,000 listeners worldwide.
Pastor Straker is a loyal husband and father. He’s fortunately married to the previous Latanya T. Bryce for over 24 years. Collectively, they’ve produced two good-looking younger males, Louis III and Landon.
Pastor Straker mentioned his final want and goal in life is “to be a light-weight and a mirrored image” of his Creator, “residing a life, not simply with success, however significance,” which, upon his “departure, will go away this world in a greater place.”
