The following essay originally appeared on June 12, 2020, at Religion Unplugged. Reposted here by permission.
For more than a week, hundreds of thousands of Americans, black and white, have taken to the streets across the country in an enormous outpouring of pain and rage. People, throughout the nation, primarily youth and of every race and ethnicity, have been responding to the vicious murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Their powerful emotions have overwhelmingly been channeled into protests in over 75 cities.
Starting in Minneapolis and spreading to cities as far-flung as Atlanta, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and even to London and Paris, people have gathered in large numbers from coast to coast, in the north and south. The vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, and the events themselves have generally been nonviolent throughout their scheduled duration. However, a smaller number of rioters have resorted to shocking levels of violence, often after the official end of the protest. Their actions have been extremely destructive and deeply troubling: police cars have been burned; police officers have been pelted with projectiles; a police precinct in Minneapolis was torched; small businesses have been destroyed. In many cities such as Boston, some police officers have shown great restraint in the face of insults and harassment. But in almost every city, we have seen arrests and the use of violence against peaceful protesters, notably in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
For many, the horror of George Floyd’s death under the knee of Derek Chauvin, the astonishing response of throngs of people, the destruction of property, and the law enforcement response have been overwhelming. This is especially true given the unprecedented threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are left bewildered by these events, wondering how to interpret them, wondering how to respond.
The most important lens through which Christians should view the current circumstances is our understanding of biblical precepts. What light does Scripture cast on these events? Which principles are most important to us as people committed to internalizing and obeying the teachings of the Christian faith?
There is probably little disagreement that the actions of Derek Chauvin were vile and a contradiction to his responsibility to serve and protect. To kneel on the neck of another man, only a few feet from his face, while he lay dying is unspeakably depraved. Not to render aid to someone in need as a first responder was a violation of his duty. To ignore not only the repeated pleas of George Floyd but of several bystanders who pointed out that Mr. Floyd was bleeding from the nose, that the police officers were killing him, that he was unresponsive is reprehensible beyond imagining. To ignore the suggestion of a colleague that the man being detained should be moved from a prone posture, which is known to be potentially deadly when the suspect is handcuffed, bespeaks callous indifference.
Horror at Derek Chauvin’s actions is all the more understandable among Christians who see all human life as sacred. Yet many Christians may be struggling with how to respond to the incident. The biblical principles surely suggest that we have a great responsibility to do whatever we can.
When the first murder was committed by Cain, he sought to deny his culpability by implying that he was not responsible for his brother’s well-being: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The judgment that fell on his shoulders made it clear that we are indeed our brother’s keeper. And our brother George Floyd’s blood cries out to us from the ground. Jesus’s teaching on the Good Samaritan who risks his life and spends his resources to help a man assaulted by thieves reinforces the message: every individual is our brother whom we must love as ourselves (Luke 10:30–37). We cannot simply turn away from an incident such as this.
To some, the huge demonstrations that have been rocking the country may seem like a disproportionate reaction to the evil actions of a single man. But they are in response to so much more. African Americans and those who stand with them are moved by a deadly pattern, based in white supremacy. For centuries, the lives of black people have been held cheaply: from slavery, through Jim Crow to race riots. Race riots, such as the one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, typically left many black people dead but very few whites. The Tulsa Race Massacre was one of several incidents in which black towns were destroyed by rioting whites envious of the economic prosperity of their black neighbors. Similar destruction occurred in Rosewood, Florida, in 1923.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was very effective in reducing the terror with which blacks in the South lived until then. However, in the late 20th and the 21st century, the devaluation of the lives of black people, especially black men, has continued. We have witnessed a pattern of criminal conduct by a minority of rogue officers, which in almost every case has gone unpunished. Incidents range from the murder of Arthur McDuffie, a former Marine, who was beaten to death in December 1979 in Miami; then the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in March 1991; to the murder of Amadou Diallo, who was shot 19 times by police outside his apartment building in New York City in February 1999; the death of Philando Castile while reaching for his license in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2016; to the death of Breonna Taylor in 2020; to the most recent outrage over George Floyd’s death and countless others. None of the officers in these cases was ever held criminally liable for the violence against these unarmed black people. The frustration boiling over now has deep roots in this history.
As Christians we are called to forgiveness, yet we are also commanded “Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). In righteous indignation, Jesus overturned the tables of money changers who were defiling the temple (Matthew 21:12). The Son of God had harsh words for religious leaders who led people astray, blocking their entry into the kingdom of God. He called them a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33), “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside . . . are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27–28).
In the face of egregious, enduring evil, anger is required of the Christian. Yet we are to be angry and not sin. Surely the many thousands of protesters who are marching and shouting slogans without attacking police officers or destroying property or looting stores are being angry without sinning. Many of them are not Christians. But the Bible tells us that if we do not praise God, the rocks will cry out (Luke 19:40). These non-Christians who are standing up for justice and righteousness without breaking the law are the stones crying out because we as the church have done so little to challenge racial injustice.
We find clear biblical instructions regarding looters and other lawbreakers. Since we must respect civil leaders and recognize that their authority is from God, we uphold law enforcement action against those who commit crimes in conjunction with the protests (Romans 13). Perpetrators of violence and property destruction should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Often such lawlessness punishes the residents of low-income communities, minority business owners, and neighbors who suffer the loss of their livelihood and essential services, many of which are not readily replaced. Furthermore, rioters undermining the important goals of the protests cost their cause the support of many people of good will. They serve as a powerful distraction from the central issue of racial injustice.
So what do we, the church, do in the face of the current events? The most important action is for us to pray. Pray for those enraged by the injustice of Ahmaud Arbery’s, Breonna Taylor’s, and George Floyd’s deaths. Pray for wisdom for our leaders in responding to the situation. Pray for wisdom for ourselves in doing our part.
Prayer is paramount because the problem we confront is essentially spiritual. White supremacy is stubbornly resistant; it has persisted from the period of chattel slavery to the present. It has demonstrated an ability to morph into new forms even as we defeat old ones. Just as slavery became Jim Crow segregation, white supremacy continues now in the extreme economic and health care disparities and other disadvantages that black people face. Its persistence and mutability point to a force beyond human control. The most powerful weapon against the spiritual force of white supremacy is prayer.
Next, we must educate ourselves and learn about the enduring structural racial inequities that fuel injustice as varied as death of unarmed black men, the impunity of police officers who commit these crimes, and the disproportionate number of deaths among African Americans from COVID-19. God’s provision of laws that would radically reduce economic inequality among the Israelites every seven years and every 50 years is a powerful example of the importance of social structure (Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15:1–11).
Far too few whites understand the nature of institutional racism, the barriers to education, employment, health, and other goods that black people face throughout their lives. We should seek out books such as When Affirmative Action was White by Ira Katznelson or Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith, and documentaries such as 13th by director Ava DuVernay, that provide insight into the nature of the problem. We must establish book clubs or church groups to study the problem together. It is the responsibility of every Christian to understand and work to eradicate America’s original sin: white supremacy.
Prayer is paramount and education is critical. But is it essential that they lead us to act. We cannot hide in our prayer closets or behind our books. Perhaps what is most important for the current moment is for us as Christians to do all we can to support structural changes that will reduce the frequency of incidents such as the death of George Floyd.
From the earliest stages of police-involved shootings, barriers to justice must be removed. Officers cannot be impartially charged and investigated by their peers and colleagues, by other officers and district attorneys who depend upon the police to build other cases. The first change needed is that all police-involved incidents be investigated by prosecutors with relative independence from the local police and district attorneys. In addition, independent prosecutors and investigators must reflect the diversity of the communities they represent.
However, even independent prosecutors would face a major obstacle in making the decision to bring charges against a law enforcement officer. Across the country, laws in most states protect the use of deadly force by police if they fear grave bodily harm. Cities, municipalities, and other jurisdictions around the country must revisit these laws and require greater emphasis on the circumstances that a police officer faces in determining guilt. Too many bad actors walk away from heinous crimes because they claim to have been in fear for their lives. Judges must be able to instruct jurors to give greater weight to circumstances that undermine false claims of threat to rogue officers.
Structural changes must go beyond punishing bad actors. It is critical that they prevent extrajudicial killings by rogue cops. This requires work, hard work, on the part of law enforcement agencies to make valuing black and brown lives a priority. Police forces must recruit the best possible people! To do so, police officers must be offered a good salary to attract competent, well-educated candidates. Cops who leave one jurisdiction under a cloud cannot be allowed to join another police force. And every police officer must be vigorously trained to respect black and brown residents. They must be trained to de-escalate confrontations. Cops who have a record of repeat community complaints must be scrutinized. When necessary, they must be fired. Every city and jurisdiction must be prepared to take on police unions that defend corrupt officers.
Right now, we Christians are being led largely by secular people, predominantly by the youth. But we are called to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16); our lives must display the righteousness of God to the world. The prophet Isaiah charges us to work for a society whose foundations are just: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). We must work to realize deep structural change if we are to be true to our faith.
Jacqueline C. Rivers is a lecturer in Sociology and African American Studies at Harvard University, where she earned her BA (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), MA, and PhD. She serves as the Executive Director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies. She is an elder of the Azusa Christian Community and lives and works among the black poor. On June 12, 2020, she was appointed as Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience at The King’s College in NYC.
