It’s fitting that on a weekend of extraordinary activity in space I’m quoting from my favorite astronauts about affairs on earth. But we’ve got a problem.
This isn’t news. And, unfortunately, it isn’t new. The unfathomable death of George Floyd last Monday is the latest in a long run of events that, while significant in themselves, together highlight the brokenness of society and the disproportionate effect said brokenness has on the African American community.
Before you accuse me of drinking the Kool Aid of critical race theory and intersectionality, follow my thought. One need not subscribe to dubious social theories to see the problem. Black men are dying. Yes, people of all races have been victims of excessive force by law enforcement. But there is something different in the African American experience with the police from my own.
This became real to me three years ago while leading a pastors’ Bible study. Brother John was a bivocational pastor, African American, working also as an HVAC contractor. One day he called saying he was visiting a client and would be late to our study. When he didn’t arrive at all, I called him. He said that when he left the client, a sheriff’s deputy pulled him over and was “running his license”. No speeding. No reckless driving. No probable cause. My friend never said another word about it, nor did he make any anti-police statement. A later call to another friend, the chief deputy, provided additional insight. The officer was not used to seeing a man of John’s color in a nice truck in that neighborhood. Given recent offenses in the area, my friend caught his attention.
Let me repeat, John never said anything else about it. But my heart broke with the reality that, had I been in that truck on that day, I would not have been stopped. A pastor with a godly testimony, no ill motive and a record of faithful service was stopped, searched, and screened for no other reason than being the wrong race in the wrong neighborhood.
My point here is not to cast doubt on most law enforcement officers, who are exceptional human beings and are as appalled at the treatment of George Floyd as the public at large. It’s simply to acknowledge that my African American friends face realities different from me in our communities. And this is wrong. It’s sin. As is dismissing or ignoring the problem.
The reasons for such disparity run far more deeply than simple racism, and solutions will not come through violence nor politics. The ultimate solution is a movement of God, and for this we should all pray.
But there are interim steps that I believe would honor our Lord and bless our neighbors. First, we can strengthen the communication among biblically centered pastors of all races in the community. As love and trust grows, perhaps we can progress beyond the polarizing rhetoric. And second, we can disciple believers so that our fellowship becomes a model for relations among the races across SETX.
As for me, a former police officer, I lament the wound that recent events have reopened. Even more, I grieve the persistent inability of society to heal this breach. To my African American colleagues, I can’t promise we’ll agree about reasons or solutions. But I can promise to listen, to love you, and to serve your church as I do all congregations of GTBN, that as we walk with Jesus together the world might see that we belong to Him. And maybe from this they learn how to get along themselves.
Bro. Jim