June 20, 2016

How do you tie together gun violence, a Beyoncé album, and a biblical story about Jesus bringing a girl back to life? For the Rev. Rodney Lyde, it’s all in a Sunday’s work.

Rev. Lyde, pastor of Baptist Temple Church in Homewood, responded Sunday to a call from the Allegheny County Health Department and a coalition of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches to preach against gun violence.

“I’m tired of losing another generation of young men to guns and drugs,” he said. “We gotta work for peace.”

Rev. Lyde’s sermon at Baptist Temple Church included several statistics from “Preventing Gun Violence,” an online “toolkit” of information provided by the health department, Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and PIIN. It’s not clear how many other ministers and priests took up the challenge Sunday, but the materials have been downloaded more than 200 times.

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