When sorrow comes: the power of sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter

Introduction: The power of the pulpit

Necessary injustice: Pearl Harbor and the internment of Japanese Americans

We all killed Kennedy: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Existential despair: the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Church of the National Tragedy: The Los Angeles uprisings and the Oklahoma City bombing

God's Celestial Army: September 11, 2001

The enduring American crisis: from the Newtown shooting to Black Lives Matter.