#Black Lives Matter - His name is George Floyd
I don’t get it. I can’t get it. There are many ways in which people are privileged in life and I am most definitely privileged. I am white, male, Christian, affluent, and able-bodied to name a few. In the society in which I live I have nothing going against me and I like it. I hold this position of privilege because I am the beneficiary of generations of systemic discrimination against people who are different from me. This is completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.
Knowing that I hold a privileged position based on the sinful, often evil, behaviour of those who have gone before me I have to ask myself, “What will I do with my position of privilege?” My simple answer is that I will work to see that everyone has the same opportunity to live without fear that I have. It’s not enough for me to just condemn racism, I must do what I can to actively defeat it.
A few years ago I promised a female, African, Muslim, immigrant that I would stand with and beside her in the face of discrimination. I have tried to honor that commitment in what I have said and written since then. Racism is alive and well in our culture. It’s not always overt, although if you ask people of colour they will tell you it is more overt that a white man like me can possibly be aware of. So I need to listen and pay attention to the voices of those not like me.
I did not know George Floyd. That’s not important. His girlfriend is a friend of a friend. What I saw on the video was an act of gross injustice - it was evil. Some will argue that they want to hear the backstory before passing judgment. The backstory has no bearing on what happened. The police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck as he pleaded for his life, “I can’t breathe,” he said, “I can’t breathe!” That’s usually a pretty good indicator that something’s wrong. The expression on the officer's face never changed, his complete disregard, perhaps even contempt, for Floyd’s life was clear for all to see. The people who saw what was happening as Floyd struggled for breath begged the officers to stop, they refused. As Floyd’s body was drained of life these four police officers did nothing. Whether or not this is deemed a legal crime - it should be - it is most definitely a crime against humanity.
This morning I was asked about an appropriate theological response to this. After reflecting on that question I believe the first response of the church should be emotional, not rational.
If you read the Bible you will find numerous times when God is seen to be emotional. God demonstrates love, hatred, anger, jealousy, and compassion among other emotional responses. We see these same emotions at work in the life of Jesus. Jesus was sad to the point of tears over the death of Lazarus, he was so angry about the desecration of the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple that he overturned tables and chased out the money lenders. We don’t have a stoic God, we worship a God who cares and feels deeply for the world.
As Christians we often talk about having the “heart for God.” The heart serves as a metaphor for the seat of emotions in the western culture. Part of developing a heart for God is learning to care about the things God cares about and justice is one of those things. Having a heart for God means learning to feel deeply and weep over the things that cause God to weep.
It’s back to Amos and Eugene Peterson’s translation,
“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
Do you feel the emotion from God?
You should be angry over the death of George Floyd. You should be pissed off at a white woman, Amy Cooper, who tried to play the race card and risk the life of a black man, Christian Cooper, in Central Park. You should be crying whenever you see injustice like we have in the killing of George Floyd. Black lives matter. Racism is baked into our culture and it will take a lot of work to undo it.
Yes, we can develop a good theological response. We can look at the creation narrative and affirm that all people are created in God’s image. We can look to Pentecost, which we celebrate this weekend, and see God bringing in people from all the nations of the world to participate in the work of God’s kingdom. We can see human equality being affirmed in the writings of Paul, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Or, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11). There’s plenty of good theology.
The problem is not theology. The problem is people. The theology breaks down unless we repent of our sin. To repent of our sin requires the hard work of admitting that we have sinned. It requires a broken and contrite heart. An acknowledgement that we have not loved our black neighbor as ourselves. It requires action on our part to stand with and beside those who still sit on the margins of society and put in the hard work to correct the injustice. Yes, it will require sacrifice.
#Blacklivesmatter - George Floyd is his name.
Let me leave you with the words of one black member of our church,
“For all my friends who have been so forthcoming about their support for the police...Take some time and watch what happened to George Floyd and acknowledge that it is yet another killing of an unarmed black man. You are not waiting for the rest of the evidence to come because you know it’s all right there. You are hoping something else comes up to fit your narrative. Your silence tells me so...or you have watched the video of a man being murdered and you still don’t care. You would rather see someone die than to identify with the truth. That, my friends, is called hate. The claim that not all cops are bad only holds true if the good ones hold the bad ones accountable and that is still yet to be seen. Yet, you scream at Kaepernick for taking a knee, or oppose #BLM. I know a lot of friends who are officers and some who aspire to be one...But the stigma around cops will NEVER go away unless these officers break from the norm and BE the good officers and call out their colleagues. You might read my words and think it’s just another angry black man, but it is my truth and my reality everyday. The men and women in blue will have you believe I should accept it. No, no I won’t. It is an unjust reality for black people and we will not accept it. Just in case you missed it, or chose to scroll past the hundreds of shares today, here it is again. Try and watch it this time... I know it won’t be easy.”
