(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for George Floyd, originally shared on June 1, 2020. It was the nineteenth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
I want to talk with you today about George
Floyd. He was murdered by a now former Minneapolis police officer who put his
knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck and used his weight to hold Mr. Floyd down for nearly
9 minutes. Mr. Floyd died after gasping and calling out for his mother, who has
been dead for 2 years. That’s not news. What made it news was that the incident
was recorded on video and broadcast widely and often.
I’m speaking today as a white person, on
race. Whenever anyone does this, they move onto dangerous ground. No matter
what I say, I’m going to offend somebody. I know that.
It’s a difficult subject, because we are
speaking from so much ignorance. Part of that ignorance comes from us not
understanding one another.
What we mean when we speak of the way the
world work depends upon our experience in the world. That can be vastly
different among various races. We can be agreeing with one another and still
get upset, because we have little understanding of one another. And I don’t
mean that many of us think we get along with everybody. We need more than
superficial tolerance right now. We need understanding. It’s hard, but we need
to start. All of us.
But I do apologize if you are upset. We
don’t need any more of that right now.
For me to say what I want to say, I need to
start at the beginning, or close to the beginning.
*Genesis 1:26-27
George Floyd was a person. He was created in
the image of God. Among the many layers of meaning that means is that, like you
and me, he was created for a living relationship with the living God. It also
means that, as a child of God, he was your brother.
Mother Theresa was once asked, what is the
world’s biggest problem. She gave an unexpected answer. She said that the world’s
biggest problem is that, we don’t define the word “family” broadly enough.
How do we redefine our relationships?
How do Christians begin to narrow the
communications gap among members of the human race?
First, we have to have empathy for the
criminal officers. That’s right, I said empathy. Jesus taught us to love our
enemies. This is not for the sake of our enemies. It’s for ourselves.
I don’t know
anything about the murderer, but I don’t think that he went into police work so
that he could murder people. If he did, he’s sick and needs treatment in
addition to punishment. And, if he didn’t, we need to ask ourselves how he
turned into someone that thought it was acceptable to put his weight on his
knee, and his knee on a man’s neck until was choked to death.
And, even as we do so, we can still, as a
civil society, hold him criminally accountable for this murder.
I want to say that, from what I’ve seen, I
don’t see a lot of room for equivocating. The officer who killed Mr. Floyd
committed murder. And, he’s been charged. I think that those officers who stood
around and did nothing should also be charged.
Where circumstances lead to murder, and in
other circumstances of criminal acts, there is no obligation for law
enforcement officers to look the other way or to defend a murderer wearing a
badge.
There was an expectation of honorable
behavior when I was in the Marine Corps, about as tight an organization as
exists on the face of this planet. We were trained to recognize acts that were
not acts of warriors, but acts of criminals wearing a uniform. Murdering a
prisoner, for example. When something like that happened in our presence, or if
we were given an illegal order to commit such an act, we were taught that it
was our duty to our country, to the Marine Corps, and to ourselves to report
the person to a superior officer, and to ourselves resist such illegal orders.
Officers have to go out and do their jobs
every day, however, knowing that many will judge them by the standard of the
worst among them. They deserve our support.
Third, we need to reflect on the rioters and
the riots that followed George Floyd‘s death. What fuels such rage? Well,
that’s kind of a silly question, isn’t it? Years of injustice. And, I don’t think
the stress and depravations of the coronavirus epidemic, falling heavily on
people of color, helped.
I have a colleague who lives in the
neighborhood where Mr. Floyd was killed, and where the initial rioting took
place. A significant percentage of the rioters were white, and the mob
destroyed the life’s work of people of color and people dedicated to the well-being
of the whole community. When the fires started it was these people, from the
neighborhood, who poured out to fight them. When the rioting stopped, they
cleaned up.
It’s been said that there is an African
proverb that says, “The child who is not embraced by the
village will burn it down to feel its warmth" That may be true, but I
don’t think he or she will get much sympathy from the village. People are today
left homeless, jobless, and without hope after just gaining a sliver of hope
with the reopening of their businesses at this stage in the corona virus
pandemic. Lots of unmasked protestors and rioters will be in two or three weeks
coming down with a terrible illness, and spreading it to many others.
Yet, we need to understand them, as well. As my wife, Rev. Sally Welch,
pointed out, they are somebody’s children, brothers, sisters, and friends.
Their families and friends didn’t hope that someday they would grow up to
become nihilists, anarchists, and thieves seeking the end of civil society. They
didn’t either. What set them on that path? What are the conditions, either
prior to or just on that day, that made it acceptable for then to destroy other
people’s livelihoods, community services, and public trust?
They must be held criminally responsible. But, how can we better
understand why they took the path of destruction, unlike the vast majority of
people who live in identical circumstances every day, and to see that they are
not followed by more people of violence.
Will people respond to the claim that violence is necessary to get
people’s attention? As LA County Sherriff Alex Villa Nueva pointed out, the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the thousands of other people involved in the
Civil Rights Movement in the ‘60’s were not violent. They were subjected to
violence. And, look at the change that came from their sacrifices! But, we are
not finished. We must not see progress and believe that the work is completed. There
is more work to come.
When people see a flaunting of the law, the theft of other people’s
property, the destruction of their places of employment and means of making a
living, they do not become sympathetic. They become defensive, they are
inclined to protect what is theirs not cultivate a generous spirit. They tend
to condemn the evil, and conflate it with the good. They lose interest in the
difficult conversations that must take place.
Worst of all, the rioting and looting, the fires and the anti-police
graffiti, change the conversation from the injustice of Mr. Floyd’s death, and
the many before him, and toward the behavior of the rioters.
Finally, the only people that we should be hard on is ourselves. I think
of the story of Fiorella LaGuardia, mayor of New York during the depression. At
that time Mayor LaGuardia would sometimes sit as judge for night court. One
night, a man was brought before him for stealing a loaf of bread. “Did you
steal a loaf of bread?” La Guardia asked. “Yes, your honor, I did,” he said.
“Why did you steal a loaf of bread?” “To feed my family.” “You stole a loaf of
bread to feed your family?” “Yes, your honor.” “Well,” said LaGuardia, “I’m
going to have to find you guilty.” “Yes, your honor.”
LaGuardia slammed his gavel on his bench and said, “I find you guilty of
stealing a loaf of bread. The fine is $5.00”. And, Mayor LaGuardia reached into
his pocket, pulled out $5.00, handed it to the bailiff, and paid the man’s
fine.
Then,
he slammed down his gavel again. “And, furthermore, I fine every person in this
courtroom $.50 for living in a city that tolerates conditions where a man has
to steal bread to feed his family.” And, he gave the collected money to the man
who stole the bread.
Why do we tolerate the racial inequities of
our nation? Because it’s a huge issue, and involves some difficult
conversations.
There
is more change that has to come, but it will not come through violence. Dr.
King said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive
out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive
out hate; only love can do that.”
*Galatians 3:27-28
“We need to have a conversation.” How many
times have I heard that one? So start.
If you’re black, I don’t have any advice.
You know what can be done.
If you’re white, seek out a black person close
to you and ask them to tell you their stories and how they see the world. Don’t
start by apologizing for all white people. Nobody wants to hear that. That’s
just virtue signaling. You can’t anyway. Don’t claim to be different from those
other people, because you know that’s not true. Start by telling your story,
and what has made you the way you are. Look inward to see if you have any
insight into your own actions. And, seek justice.
Justice in the Bible, is not politics of the
right or the left or anyplace in between. It is doing God’s will. That is how
we determine what is just and what is not. We ask, what does the Bible, our
prayer time, and the history and experience of the people of God in answering
the question tell us about what is God’s will. We see it most clearly at the
cross: sacrificial love for all humanity, created in God’s image with one
blood, and made a new Creation in Jesus Christ, and a new community in the Holy
Spirit: One God.
Yesterday was Pentecost, celebrating the Day
of Pentecost and the end of the Easter Season. Isn’t it ironic that, as our
congregation’s pastor Pastor Lara Martin pointed out, that we celebrated a day marking
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, symbolized by fire, when our neighborhoods
were burning, literally, with rage. Isn’t it ironic that we celebrated a day
when we celebrated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, where the word spirit, in
both Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Old and New Testament, use words
for spirit that can also mean breath, on a day when we protest the death of a man
who said, “I can’t breathe”?
How can we communicate Pentecost in this
time?
I don’t have all the answers, far from it.
But I do know where to go to find them.
One of the alternative Gospel readings for
Christian Churches all over the world yesterday was
*John 7:37--39
What can we do?
Pray to know and do God’s will, seek the
leading of the Holy Spirit for justice, and act for change.
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