Some thoughts on Race, America, and Christian Response

How did the overwhelming tragedy in Minneapolis happen?

(Feel free to substitute Baltimore or Ferguson or Louisville or, or, or . . .)

The sinfulness of mankind

Born out over hundreds of years

As one group of people oppresses another

For the color of their skin or their country of origin

And it is not limited to our southern states

Nor to the distant past

Remember, the Civil Rights movement didn’t end in victory

It ended with assassinations, lynchings with guns.

So rage and fear and despair build in that people

For what is their crime but being what God made them?

Until one day an officer harms, no, kills a black man

For the uncountedth time

And the fuse is lit

On the pressurized explosive incendiary device

Of an oppressed and unheard people

So they explode in protests and riots

The language of the unheard

But then, as is so often the case, sin finds a way

The riots become the story,

Those “thugs” and law-breakers become the headlines

And the fuse is forgotten

And centuries are forgotten

And oppression and injustice are ignored

Again and again and again

As George Floyd (or Breonna Taylor, or Michael Brown, or Freddie Gray, or, or, or . . .)

Fades into the background

And political posturing

And cultural white washing opportunism moves to the front

The riots that began with pure rage aged in despair

Become anger infused with greed

By some who simply want to destroy and wreak havoc

And very likely smear a bad name and spray a rotten stench

On all who are protesting peaceably with cause

There’s a time for war and a time for peace

A time to speak and a time to be silent

But for our black brothers and sisters

It seems it is always the time for peace and silence

Never the time to demonstrate or speak

Or protest or fight

But what choice have we left them?

We ask for peace but do not protect it

We demand it but do not honor it or provide it.

The burden of peace in America

Lies on the oppressed and the downtrodden

They must uphold the ease of the oppressors

Now a word to my fellow white Christians:

To call this a “sin issue” or a “gospel issue” is true

Profoundly true, and more than we are ready to recognize

Unless you intend to hide behind those phrases

And use them as a get-out-conflict-free ticket

Or foist the blame for unrest on the oppressed

This tragedy, this unrest, is a sin issue

The gospel is the ultimate resolution to it

The good news of Jesus is the peace the world needs

And the promise of His return is our hope

When our cities are burning

And our leaders are absent

But those are not life boats to escape the Titanic

Of racial and societal upheaval

They are a summons, a call, a command

On our lives to follow Christ and be He was

To lay down our lives for others

To love our enemies

To see that in Christ there is no Jew or gentile

But that we are one

It is your brother who was killed when his neck was kneeled on

And your brother who killed him

And your sisters and mothers who mourn him

And your sons who rage with bricks in hand

And your sons adorned in riot gear and wielding weapons

Christ loves sinners.

Christ loves justice.

Christ loves the oppressed.

Christ loves black.

Christ loves white.

So we do not get to choose a side

We do not get to choose whether to love

Or care or be involved

If we are in Christ

Then we must be as Christ.

We cannot overcome 400 years of sordid history

with blog posts and tweets

or even with a sermon or a vote

but neither can we overcome it without those.

We cannot right the wrongs in our society

in a day or year or a decade

but if we take the next day and year and decade

we can see change happen

Listen to the voices of our black neighbors

Seek them out and sit at their feet

to hear their stories and see the world through their eyes

and recognize that what they see and say will look and sound

very little like the world you inhabit

and the life you’ve lived

even though you share your neighborhood or job or church.

When we can learn to walk a mile in their shoes

we might learn to feel their tiredness

their blisters

and the rutted road we have sent them on.