Here I am again w/ one of those threads that tries to express something that I'm not sure I have the correct words for. So, again, dear reader, grant me grace as I try to clarify a tangled set of thoughts and feelings that will certainly miss the mark in some direction.
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I know different people feel a lot of different things right now. And I know that those different feelings lead people to make a lot of different demands on others, most often white people. And I can see that a lot well-meaning white people then feel paralyzed and silenced.
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For example, sometimes the demand seems to be "please listen." Other times the demand is, "Don't ask me." Then other times the demand is "Go learn about the issues." Sometimes it's "You need to feel __." Then there's the demand to "Do something." All of these have their place.
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When people feel a lot of things all at once it can come out in a lot of different directions. And depending on the context, any one of the demands could be appropriate. For example, it's appropriate for a friend talking with another friend to say, "Just listen."
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Or, it's entirely appropriate for the spiritually, physically and mentally exhausted to say, "Don't talk to me right now. Go do the work yourself." I get that these reactions have *a* place and might be entirely appropriate expressions given the context.
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But, and here's where I need your grace, it seems to me that we need clarity about the goal of the protest. Protests can have multiple goals, but it seems to me there's a hierarchy and I wouldn't want people at the kitchen table to lose sight of that order of importance.
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For me, as a Christian who believes in heaven and hell, judgment and salvation, Jesus and the cross, resurrection and imputation, the highest possible goal is to bring attention to the fact that there is a Savior who rescues sinners from deserved judgment and cares for them.
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Not everybody protesting shares that goal because not everybody protesting is a Christian. So something distinctively Christian needs to be inserted in the din of chanting voices. We believe in a Savior who rescues the repentant and that needs to come through somewhere.
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Just speaking for myself, after someone's salvation from judgment and hell to be loved by God in glory comes concrete policy, system and cultural changes that protect Black lives as a baseline and contribute to Black flourishing beyond that. The goal is concrete change.
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This means that while I think some people DO need to think and feel more deeply @ the issues, right now I don't need that more than I need change. It's one application of Dr. King's comment: "the law can't make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me." That part.
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So, it seems to me that insisting on certain emotional reactions from white people misses the point. Dogging white people is equivalent to "owning the libs." It can be so much blather and grandstanding that leads to nothing.
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Our immediate goal really needs to be raising enough awareness to create legal and systemic.
Cultural change is longer in coming--and so is personal change. I'm not interested to exchange personal displays of contrition and remorse for actual change in law and practice.
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Cultural change is longer in coming--and so is personal change. I'm not interested to exchange personal displays of contrition and remorse for actual change in law and practice.
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IOW, the movement is not about kumbaya moments. Have those in your personal relationships, by all means. But what brings us to the streets is a desire to see real action that leads to a society safe for all where Black lives matter. I don't get that from your tears.
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Shed genuine tears where and when necessary. But, Black brothers and sisters, let's not demand it because such demands are not necessary to the concrete changes needed. Keep your eyes on the prize, beloved. And keep pressing toward the mark of the upward call of God.
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/14
Okay. I'm done. It's Saturday. Gonna get some rest before we march tomorrow. But want everyone to know the march isn't merely about sorrow or anger, and certainly not about Black people demanding it of White people. It's about justice. And reaching justice requires change.
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