Okay, let’s think about this. As of yesterday,
statistics show that 109 people have been killed in the St. Louis region this
year. Actually, there was another homicide yesterday, so make the total 110. Religious
leaders gathered recently in Ferguson fervently requesting ‘repentance’ of the
officers of the Ferguson Police Department, even as the protesters continued to
march for justice, which jump-started my pondering on such things.
That Michael Brown was shot and died is a horribly violent
tragedy and, yes, there is ample data indicating racial profiling in the
Ferguson and St. Louis region Police Departments yet, what intrigues me is the
irony of this: Ferguson Police Officer, Darren Wilson, is being prosecuted,
even persecuted, for using undue force, for making decisions based on race, and
for taking justice in his own hands. Is this not exactly what the ‘repentance
requiring’ clergy are doing to the Ferguson Police Department? By confronting
the members of the Ferguson Police Department, by marching in the hundreds in
front of the Police Department and City Hall, and by demanding that the justice
that they (the protesters) seek is the only justice which is acceptable, even
if only that of a repentant spirit, the protesters create a situation where
Peace Officers are forced, again, to decide and act in a potentially volatile situation
. . . as the crowds threaten to take justice in their own hands and make
assumptive decisions based on race and geography. Hmmmm. Sounds a lot like
downtown Jerusalem, not so very long ago.
Almost as a sidebar, yet being thrust on center-stage:
Who among us doesn't need a fair amount of repentance for the wrongs we have
done? Perhaps even/especially the clergy who are involved?
The events leading up to the tragedy and
accompanying unrest in Ferguson didn't happen overnight. Ferguson has slowly,
systematically been declining in economic vigor for years. Those families who
could get out of the region, or wanted to, left long ago. Those who didn't have
a choice but stay and those who found the, now, cheaper housing in that region
attractive, are the basis of much of the Ferguson community today . . . and the
schools reflect the transition. The public schools languish in the resulting
financial transitions. Those who can either move or pay to have their children
attend private schools to avoid the ‘roughneck’ nature of the resulting
educational atmosphere. Those who cannot change their circumstance or pay to
have it changed are left with diminishing resources and an often uncertain
future, i.e. the Normandy School District.
It would seem that the Ferguson Police Department and
Ferguson City Hall have become the symbolic lightning rods for an entire
community, state and nation dealing with growing anguish, anger, frustration,
and enmity rooted in neighborhood racial and economic classism. The invisible,
insidious segregation of races, economic classes, and educational/employment
opportunities has forcefully, vehemently become visible in the death and
resulting conversations/demonstrations of Michael Brown – and what is being
seen shocks us because, for too many, far too many, the enemy to be confronted
is not ‘them’, but us.
Yes! Justice must be demanded, but I suspect the
kind of justice really needed is to be found, not in front of the Ferguson
Police Department or City Hall, but in the mirror image of those who demand the
most while living/staying the farthest away from the epicenter of the conflict.
Yes, I’m talking about those who live in their nice subdivisions, cul-de-sacs,
and protected neighborhoods, which are not in neighborhoods such as Ferguson .
. . precisely because they do not want their children growing up in the
hard-scrabble existence faced by those who walked those streets long before the
protesters arrived. I have seen their pictures scattered on Facebook, newspaper
and television news outlets . . . and so have you. They send their own children
to the elite public, parochial or private schools, shop in safe neighborhoods,
and demand their local law enforcement folk patrol diligently to keep the
disenfranchised from wandering their streets, all the while patting each other
on the back for demonstrating and ‘taking a risk’ to stand in the front of a
crowd, grab a mike and voice a prayer. They publicly repent of their white and/or
economic privilege and tell the establishment how to better address the marginal
existence of others, while holding on to the purse-strings of well-paying jobs
with generous benefits and cultural security. They find the unblinking public
eye of a camera to lift up their holiness and distress over the tragic killing
of one of God’s children, they lift their cries of outrage in the modern
wilderness of the very classism they cause and in which they continue to take
part, and they call for others to behave differently with little remorse of
their own - then wonder why folks are cynical in listening to them and lauding
their efforts.
Yet, when the cameras are turned off and the
demonstrators have dispersed, what of ‘justice’ for the other 109 killed? Who
is lifting up those families as they bury their dead? Who is it that is willing
to stand up and take on the injustice of a broken educational system, a
battered economic reality, or a shattered culture of poverty and inherent
classism? Who is it that deals with the families whose children were killed for
the cause of drugs, turf, or gangs? Who is it that is willing to step into the
breach of homelessness, moral insufficiency or the ongoing lack of family or
communal support among the young of our community? Who is it that will call for
repentance in downtown St. Louis, Chicago, New York, San Francisco . . . or any
other city you want to name, that all
of Nineveh would be saved, not just the portion making the news?
Granted, what has transpired in the demonstrations has
been undertaken with the best of intentions yet, there was a reason the
prophets of another age were so disdained: They moved in and dwelt among the
people, becoming an ongoing discomforting presence calling for faithfulness in
heart, courage in action and unswerving commitment to God’s holy vision of
community. They didn't go somewhere else to be home, to places of safety,
security and advantages galore, planning to return the next day with another
message they thought needed to be heard. They took on the challenges of their
neighbor by becoming a neighbor. They sent their children to the same schools,
they depended on the same police departments and took part in local government
functions . . . from a faith-based existence.
You want to address white privilege? Then really
give it up and stop wrapping your living in its security.
You want to address the injustices of the system?
Stop being unjust in your living.
You want to address the racism of our existence?
Stop being racist in choosing where you live, shop and send your children to
school.
You want to address the authorities in the
institutions? Move into their neighborhood and stand shoulder to shoulder with
them in the face of the hostilities and inequities they face each day. Don’t
just expect them to carry cameras to record each moment, be the personal
presence which sees with them.
You want to appear prophetic? Pack a suitcase and
speak your faith. Don’t expect to ever go home again.
You want a prophet’s task? Repent of your comforts,
advantages, and securities . . . sell all that you have and pick up your cross
and follow Jesus. Too many among our prophetic ‘want-to-bes’ are like the rich
young man with whom Jesus spoke: He knew what needed to be done, but could not
integrate his desire for life with the manner in which he lived.
The family of Michael Brown and the community of
Ferguson, Missouri, need a corps of committed activists to walk with them in
these days, absolutely no doubt and with very good reason. But, what they do
not need are uncommitted, unrepentant Jonah’s who really don’t want Nineveh to
turn around and live because such a repentance would require as much or more of
them, as well. So, too, does Officer Darren Wilson and his family. All of their
lives depend on each of us living the fullness of the justice for which we
patently call in these days. Such a transformation will occur when, finally, we
look in the mirror and see our own highly visible complicity in the events of
these days, get up from under the broom trees of our existence, and move on in
the faith God gives for all.
In that day, our current irony will become the
Kingdom and the Good News will truly be heard. In that day all the victims will
have a place in the Son, not just the ones with the greatest amount of press.
Something on which to ponder: Justice for Ferguson from
another perspective, one demanding our all-in repentance, not just the
rhetoric. The hollow rhetoric, often faith-based, has led us to such days, but
it will be the complete repentant committed action in faith which will lead us
Home.
