He begged for his life until he was dead, and America had a front row seat.
We were all witnesses to murder, if we were willing to watch, of an American citizen by a member of the Minneapolis Police force. A bystander streamed it Facebook Live. So how is it that four Minneapolis police officers have only been terminated and not immediately taken into custody and charged with the murder of George Floyd, a black man? Of course the police report says he “matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case, resisted arrest and then suffered “medical distress.” Medical distress generally does follow a knee shoving your face and esophagus into the pavement until you suffocate. I hear those forgery suspects are real assassins.
But it’s not just George Floyd. It is Ahmaud Arbery, a black man shot while jogging in Georgia. It is Sean Reed, a black man and military veteran shot by police May 6, in Indianapolis while police joked about the shooting. It is Christian Cooper, a black man in Central Park who had the police called on him for asking a white woman to leash her dog. It is Travis Miller Sr., a delivery driver and black man in Oklahoma who was detained by a white man who blocked his truck. On it goes. There are so…many…cases.
We have an evil, sick wickedness in this country of racism and prejudice. There is no rational justification for such hate or brutality. None. Unless there is imminent danger, there is no justification for police brutality or homicide. There are so many police officers in this country who do their jobs and do them well, and we should thank them. But we also continue to see these excessive uses of force against blacks. This is a problem. Where is the overt, high-profile initiative to train and eradicate these situations? Where is the justice? I recognize there is retaliatory violence against police and it should be met with swift justice as well.
Whether it is instances like Central Park, Oklahoma, the two black men detained last year in a Philadelphia Starbucks, the pattern is obvious. Would any of these men listed above be dead or harassed if they’d been white? Doubtful.
I understand why there is racial hate in this country, in this world. The human heart is wicked above all else, who can understand it. The only sure solution is the gospel of Jesus Christ that kills the root of this problem.
However, if you are a white Christian there is no room for racism in your heart. I’ve struggled with my own for years and concluded there is no possible way to condone or excuse any of these cases of racial prejudice. Christian, we MUST speak against the injustice we see. If we claim to be prolife, we must be prolife in every area of life regardless of our race, or nationality or theirs.
I wrote this column last fall titled, “No Room for Racism in the Christian Heart,” and in light of everything that’s happened in these past few weeks, it seems appropriate to offer it again. As I write in the column, “One cannot profess love for Christ while simultaneously hating people of a different color or nationality. Jesus is clear: All are welcome.”
Other Entries related to the Racism/George Floyd Murder
My Encounter With a Black Teenage
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