One pernicious and wicked effect of racism is the way it makes lying on Black people an acceptable and plausible strategy for expressing anger or covering one’s guilt/sin. We see it in this headline (covering guilt) and in the Christian Cooper situation (expressing anger).
It’s a feature of American society that maintains plausible deniability for almost any white person and implausible innocence for almost any black person. Add “large” and “male” to “black” and you get the country’s favored cocktail for dangerously vilifying any African American.
It’s really a deep and ugly sin. It’s not only racism but also murder in the heart. In the Christian Cooper situation, the young woman knew very well—as we all do by now, having seen so many videos of this kind of behavior—that her threat/word could evoke lethal state power.
We haven’t exhaustively dissected situations like these when we’ve merely called them “sin” or agreed that “that was racism.” If we are serious about naming sins accurately as God does, then we must add lying, murder, man stealing of a sort (false imprisonment), slander...
Lust (for power, control, etc.), lovelessness, anger and hatred—just for starters. The tendency to shrink the discussion to semantics—esp when people only want to generalize it to “sin”—really hides how deep and nasty the disease is. Which keeps people from seeing the truth.
But, of course, that’s the cultural compact in a country that has never adequately acknowledged its many and varied sins against its black population. There’s a tacit cultural agreement that these things need not be acknowledged, only wished away when exposed.
That cultural compact absolves its members from ever dealing with each other or making restitution to those victimized. It’s little more than the code of the street (don’t snitch), widened and alibied with accusations against black people, often for their own deaths.
It’s really sick, sinful, demonic. There are seemingly few places in this great expanse of a country where a fearless gospel with a final judgment, a holy God, and an eternal hell is preached against it. The conscience of the country sleeps b/c the preachers of the country sleep.
Is it no wonder we keep seeing these things? There’s been no call for contrition, repentance and justice from the so-called guardians of God’s truth. Many a call for patience goes out, but hardly a call to action or a call to justice. Except when people who aren’t Xian’s do so.
And so the conscience of the country continues its slumber. The pulpits strum their in quietude. Laments come more regularly but not the kind of discipleship and evangelism that would really challenge people to follow Jesus in that life-altering way the NT is so full of.
I’m praying tonight that God would let justice roll. It will have to be a move of God, and perhaps that’s what He is up to as we continue seeing these things. But we will *know* it is God’s doing when this compact is broken and the racist allegations are no longer easily believed
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
