Greetings bloggers,
Ok, so confession time. In an effort to keep the blog going a bit during quarantine, I pre-wrote a bunch of posts and scheduled them to come out twice a week. Today’s post was going to be about the inner journey, about showing up and being attentive to yourself. But…that seems to be exactly the opposite of what we need right now, so allow me to interject.
I have remained largely quite on social media and here on the blog in the wake of George Floyd, for two reasons. First, on the White Supremacy episode of Roughing the Pastor, we were reminded that it is often good to abdicate our privilege to our brothers and sisters of color, to allow their voices room the speak. I have felt like most of what I was reading on the internet was white people trying to make sense of this tragedy, which told me A) I don’t follow enough people of color on social media, and B) we probably didn’t need one more middle aged white guy spouting off. So I’ve been quietly listening, again in particular to my friends who are in the trenches in these kinds of discussions, and wanting to give their voices room to breathe. The other reason I haven’t written anything about all of this is because I’m too angry. I can’t tell you how many Facebook posts I have started, read over, thought better of, and deleted. To be sure, anger is more than ok in this landscape, but I feel like composing a tweet is a bad use of good anger.
So I’ve stayed quiet. Until…
Last night I got the news story on my phone that after remarks in which President Trump threatened military action against protestors, tear gas was fired to break up and disperse peaceful protestors in the way of the President, so that he could pose with the Bible in front of a church. That was it. While I don’t come even close to considering myself worthy to speak to the frustration, anger, despair, and outrage our African American brothers and sisters are feeling right now, religion and politics is kind of my thing.
The first thought I had about all of this was that if the President had read the Bible, he would have noticed that much of what he did last night was antithetical to the way of Jesus. And so in no particular order, here are some verses from the very lips of Jesus to speak against what went down last night.
Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children. (Matthew 5:9 CEB)
This one hits home for me on a couple of levels, but simply put there is a difference between restoring order whatever that might look like, and making peace. Truth be told, I don’t love how violent the protests have become because of this verse too. There are rumors floating around that in fact there are those joining these protests simply to incite violence, but I don’t have time to get in to all of that. For now suffice it to say that the peaceful protestors are trying to make peace in this country, are trying to stop white people from shamelessly killing black people, far too often without consequences. Now again my discomfort with the violence in these riots is my own, and at some point I would love to sit down with some of my brothers and sisters of color to talk that out. But here’s what I can tell you: threatening to send in the United States Military to restore order is not making peace. Shooting tear gas and rubber bullets to clear a path for you to walk to a church is not making peace. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” is not making peace.
Speaking of which…
“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:38-42 CEB)
This whole “when the looting starts the shooting starts” business has been driving me insane. One of the things we are most living in to as a nation right now is the Myth of Redemptive Violence. It’s this idea that if you hurt me, I will somehow feel better by hurting you. Gosh, you can see it all over our political world right now. On both the left and the right I see less a desire to see a political agenda advanced, and more that folks want to beat the other side. There’s a reason it’s called a myth. Violence is never redemptive. It will not make you feel better. It will not in and of itself restore justice. Look to the example of Jesus, who when threatened with violence was not violent in return, but rather laid down his life for everyone. Violence will not help us feel better. It just can’t.
When Jesus entered the temple, he threw out those who were selling things there. He said to them, “It’s written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a hideout for crooks.” (Luke 19:45-46 CEB)
The idea that the President went to this church (incidentally, without informing the church or its bishop that he was planning to come) to take a photo in front of it drives me crazy. If you need a less political example of this, it drives me every bit as crazy when folks come to our church to take their homecoming and prom pictures when they don’t worship here. Churches are not props for some other gain. Churches are not to be used for political statements, we are meant to be political statements. To use a church as a backdrop for something I am sure will be in ads for your own political agenda shortly is frustrating and maddening to me. Churches do not exist to help people get rich, win elections, or advance their careers (even, incidentally the careers of those of us in robes). Churches exist to point to the Kingdom of God.
To that point, something needs to be said about politics here. You may have already tuned me out because you felt I was unfairly attacking one political party or another. I’m not. Truth be told in this moment that’s the farthest thing from my mind. What’s on my mind is the sense of justice that Jesus has called us to, and whether you approve or disapprove of any particular elected leader right now is irrelevant, we are not living in that kingdom of justice. We have to do better. We must.
But a blog won’t do it. A Facebook post won’t do it. A tweet won’t do it. I feel compelled to an action I have not yet named, and so I welcome in the comments below any thoughtful suggestions of what we can do, ways that we can embody the love and grace of Jesus Christ in these dark days. Until then, I welcome any of you who continue to hold our nation in prayer, that we might live in the world as Jesus would have us live.