Our country has been shaken by the current events in Minneapolis Minnesota where George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police. George Floyd was unarmed, nonviolent, and undeserving of the force used by the police that ultimately lead to his death. All across America, protests began popping up in many of our largest cities. These protests were mostly peaceful, but violent riots quickly broke out causing more anger and a multi-county curfew to go into effect. Social media became a storm of opinions, anger, confusion, and outrage. Social media became a breeding ground for hate speech, unfiltered opinions, and fear. With so much chaos, how can we as Christians make sense of all of this?
First of all, we have to realize that this is not just one issue causing the chaos; it’s several issues. The people who are at the protests are not all protesting the same thing. Some are protesting police brutality as a whole; others are protesting specifically race related police brutality. Others are protesting systemic racism, others are protesting to have justice served for the man who killed George Floyd and are calling for his immediate arrest. Even more, others are protesting that all four of the cops be arrested who aided in the murder of George Floyd; whereas others are protesting local injustices, like here in Omaha where a 22 year old protestor, named James Scurlock, was shot and killed by a local bar owner during the protests. Realistically, many of the protestors were protesting several of the above mentioned things. As if this isn’t already complicated enough, the protests were infiltrated by paid for rioters who were paid cash to cause violence and destruction. Some of these professional rioters encouraged others to be violent as well, so we had no idea who was there for a peaceful protest and who was there to cause destruction. And we aren’t finished yet, some people, who were not all participants in the protests, found it an opportune time to loot and steal items from local shops. These were the scenes in major cities all across America.
As you can see, this is not just ONE issue, its several issues. So as Christians, we need to be sure to not paint with too broad of a brush. These events are not simple to understand, they are actually very complicated. Step one for Christians is to learn the facts.
Once we have done our research and learned the facts about what is really going on, then and only then do we have the ability to move to the next step, which is empathy.
As you can imagine, with all that is going on, many people have many different views. Some people say justice was served because all four cops are currently being charged in the George Floyd case, other people say justice won’t be served until we defund the entire police organization and replace it with something better. And of course, we hear many arguments in-between the previous two.
Wow, so where do we start? How can we make a change to something if nobody seems to even agree on what justice is and what justice isn’t?
I’m not writing this today to convince you on my thoughts on justice, I’m writing this because we need to collectively learn what it means to listen, empathize, and love. It really doesn’t matter what side of this multi-faceted spectrum you fall, we all need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and respond with love. Maybe you are speaking with someone about these issues now and you think they are absolutely CRAZY! Maybe you think their viewpoint on this situation is way off. Hard as it might be, try to put yourself in their shoes. Why do they think the way they think? What solutions do they have for the issues at hand? What experiences in life do they have that differ from yours? Each individual brain has over 86 billion neurons that affect the way we think. It’s no wonder no two people think alike! We have to recognize this because it’s the building blocks of empathy.
Once we empathize with those we don’t agree with, it’s time for the last step, which is love. Right now, when the tensions are high, don’t give “tough love.” If someone thinks differently than you, it might be best to just let them know you are here for them, that you are listening, and reassure them that they are being heard.
Think about it this way, when someone hurts you, what comforts you? While the pain is still fresh, opinions, facts, and statistics don’t comfort anyone. So save those for later. When someone hurts me, I just want to know that they love me, are here for me, and will listen to me explain why I feel the way I feel. Right now, that’s what LOVE looks like. You don’t have to agree with someone to empathize with them, listen to them, and love them.
The truth is, Love and Justice are a dichotomy. A dichotomy is just a fancy word that means two separate things that are bound together irrevocably. Think of a coin, it has two sides that make up the whole. Both sides are different, but you can’t have a coin without both of them. Imagine getting a saw and cutting a coin in half. Heads in one hand, tails in the other. If you go to a store and try to purchase something with that coin, you won’t have any luck because you need both sides! Think of Love and Justice the same way you think about a coin. Can you have heads without tails? Can you have love without justice? Can you have justice without love? The answer is no. If you want justice you must have love. If you want to be loving you must also value justice.
There are so many more things that I can say about this, but I’ll leave you with this final thought. 1 John 4:8b says “God is Love.” If we believe that God is the most powerful being in all existence, then shouldn’t we think love is the most powerful verb in existence? I believe in the power of love because I believe in the power of God. Our nation’s road to peace and understanding must always start and end with love.
