
3 Years Ago Today
It was 3 years ago today that Michael Brown was killed. It was 3 years ago this week that #blacklivesmatter entered the mainstream of America. It was 3 years ago this week many white Christians responded with “All Lives Matter.”
It was 3 years ago this week that I began to understand how much I had misunderstood much of what I had been taught growing up in church.
I had been taught to love my enemy. I had been taught to mourn with those who mourn. I had been taught to seek justice, love mercy, and to help the oppressed.
It was 3 years ago this week I learned I had misinterpreted those teachings.
Loving my enemy meant shooting them with my 2nd amendment protected right.
Mourning with those who mourned meant blaming others for their own misfortune and pain.
Seeking justice meant killing those who had been found guilty of killing.
Loving mercy meant forcing the poor to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.”
Helping the oppressed meant defending the unjust and corrupt systems and people that was built upon inequality and advantage.
Michael Brown died 3 years ago today. His death showed white America something the rest of America had known for a long time.
Michael Brown died 3 years ago today. The reactions to his death revealed a cancer of nationalism, racism, Republicanism, and ignorance in the evangelical church I had been completely unaware of before then.
Michale Brown died 3 years ago today. Those mourning his death were rebuffed with indignant scorn and disbelief by the very people who claimed to know the very source of love, hope, peace, and the imago Dei.
Michael Brown died 3 years ago today. May we evangelicals seek forgiveness for our calloused and evil response to the pain and oppression of our brothers and sisters.
Michael Brown died 3 years ago today. May we evangelicals begin to mourn with those who mourn, seek justice, love mercy, and help the oppressed.
Michael Brown died 3 years ago today.
