My heart is heavy, heavy again today as I hear details of Alton Sterling's murder. Friends, we MUST recognize that racial injustice is very alive and very real in our country. This doesn't mean we are negating all the good things about our country, or ignoring all the wonderful cops who are just and brave and doing their jobs well. It means we recognize that injustice ALSO DOES EXIST when a white man gets 6 months (likely less) for a brutal rape because it would "be too hard on him"....and countless black men (and women) are gunned down for selling CDs and gum. To my white brother and sisters: it is time to WAKE UP. Nothing will change if we are silent on this. We can be thankful for the wonderful things about our country while recognizing that since we live in a broken world, our systems and structures are not perfect. As followers of Christ especially, we are called to further Christ's justice and redemption, making things a little more the way he intended them, knowing that one day he will return and finish the work, making ALL things new and perfectly just. Until then, he has called US to not be silent in the face of something that goes against his very heart. He calls us to be righteously ANGRY about the things that are not the way he intends - and to ACT within the power he has given us to further his vision of justice.
It makes my heart burn thinking about the young men I know and love whose lives are in more danger than mine, simply because their skin is darker. It makes me burn with anger to think about the children Stephen and I will adopt, our children, who I will worry about more, simply because they will look different than me. For those of us who are white: let's be ANGRY about the reality we live in, be thankful for what God has given us, and then use all that we've been given to join Him in making our reality different. (This is, after all, why He has given us so much. Not to make sure our white existence continues comfortably, but to join Him in beating evil back, standing up to injustice, and making this world more the way he intended.)
To my African-American brothers and sisters: my heart mourns with you today, and every day, until true justice and equality is realized. I am here to walk with you, fight for justice with you, learn from you.
No comments:
Post a Comment