Another Post You Shouldn’t Read: Unless You Already Don’t Like Me.
I’ve been struggling with whether to write something about the murder of George Floyd (and by extension, all the others like him), the protests, and the riots. Like many of you, I’m outraged by what is going on in our streets.
I don’t like rioting and looting, but I like defenseless people being killed by those who are sworn “to serve and protect” even less. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t think that systemic racism is an integral part of our judicial, economic, and political systems, then you don’t know our history and are not paying attention.
I feel like to not speak out against those things is to be part of the problem, and I don’t want to be part of the problem. On the other hand, pretty much everything I have to say has been said much more eloquently and capably by smarter people and better writers than I am.
I kind of feel like what the country doesn’t need right now is another 50-something, white, middle-class, Christian male chiming in with his special take on racism (it’s evil and pervasive in this country – sorry, couldn’t help myself).
So, I’m going with my “special take” on something that’s contributing to the problem that hasn’t been covered quite so completely – Christians.
Yup, Christians. We’re a big part of the problem, going back to the days of slavery when far too many of us were cherry-picking the bible to prove to ourselves that owning people was not only right, but OUR right, and what’s more, was good for those we owned. We used it to justify our evil actions to ourselves, and used it to make sure that those we owned stayed docile and manageable. Note that this also includes justifying our ongoing genocide against Native Americans.
Far too many of us are basically still doing the same thing.
I was heartened by the number of Christians who were disgusted and outraged by the murder of George Floyd. I felt like we were getting somewhere maybe. Then the riots started, and suddenly too many of those same people were saying, “What happened to George Floyd was wrong, but all this destruction of property is REALLY wrong,” and then went on to talk about how those people should be protesting the “right” way.
“Those people” have been protesting peacefully for years, decades even, and many of us Christians were outraged and ferociously outspoken about it, especially when we felt those protests disrespected our flag or our country.
We Christians are big on the bible, and we love it when we can slap a verse on something that’s going on today and sit back in our smug self-righteousness, point at “them” and say “See? God warned us about this, and now they’re gonna get it!”
Of course, it always seems to center around the idea that we’re supposed to be a Christian nation and, because of our misguided tolerance, us good Christians have allowed evil foreigners, unions, atheists, and liberals to hijack the country. It all adds up to manufactured outrage about things that just aren’t so. Things like “they” took God out of school – but what about the idea that God is with us wherever we are? Or, and this is another personal favorite, “they” have taken God out of our government – seriously? Take a look back at our history and tell me when God has ever been even remotely considered by our government when making decisions. That’s not to say he’s never been invoked. He has. All the time. Almost always in the most hypocritical, self-serving, manipulative way possible.
Like I said, we seem to think those verses only apply to “them”, but think about this. Up to, and including now, Christianity has been far and away the predominant religion in this country. All this systemic racism has flourished with Christians at the helm. Now, it seems to me that we are reaping what we have sown. We are watching our country tear itself apart while denying our complicity in our nation’s most fundamental sin – racism.
Because we are all complicit. We are all guilty. I’ve never thought of myself as a racist, but I look back now and see that I have repeatedly said things that were unquestionably, indisputably racist (and they weren’t all in the distant past), without even realizing what I was doing. That’s how ingrained our nation racism is. I’ve realized that I’ve been a racist all my life, without even knowing it, and I’m ashamed of myself.
Anyway, as often happens, my mind has gone off on so many tangents while writing this, that I’ve decided to break it up into multiple posts. I’ll try to title each one so that you’ll know from the title whether you should read it or not.
I’m going to close for now with this: Christ never seemed to value property over life. Why do we? It seems like focusing on the riots is like focusing on coughing up blood without bothering to cut out the cancer that is actually killing us.
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