{"id":15765,"date":"2021-06-02T09:13:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T08:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/?post_type=word_world&p=15765"},"modified":"2022-03-09T10:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T10:23:32","slug":"left-behind-justice-and-the-church-after-george-floyd","status":"publish","type":"word_world","link":"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/journal\/left-behind-justice-and-the-church-after-george-floyd\/","title":{"rendered":"Left behind? Justice and the church after George Floyd\u202f"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018In August 2014, the shooting death of Michael Brown, a young, unarmed Black man, by a White police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked a new level of national discourse in the United States on race, civil rights, and systemic injustice.<\/em>\u2019\u202f <\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n
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So began a\u202fLausanne Global Analysis<\/a>\u202fthat I wrote five years ago. In it I highlighted some of the American church\u2019s response\u2014and non-response\u2014to a wave of high-profile killings of unarmed Black men and women. I explored the significance of systemic injustice to global mission and concluded with a call for Christians, individually and corporately, to pursue practical acts of restorative justice. The article was published a few months after a massacre by a white nationalist at a Black church in Charleston SC. This was a moment in which the church could have called for a reckoning on the issue of race and the need for justice on the road to reconciliation. Instead its racial divisions and differences were brought into sharper focus.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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2020 was punctuated by another series of\u202fhigh-profile\u202fkillings. There was a nightmarishly familiar feel to the events of last year: another death, another media wave, and another round of protests. Looking back at that Lausanne\u202fpiece, it\u202fis tempting to think that little has changed, that we are just going in circles,\u202fenduring\u202fanother\u202fiteration\u202fof atrocity, outcry,\u202fattention,\u202fand inaction.\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Such a Time as This<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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George Floyd\u2019s killing by Officer Derek Chauvin\u202fin May 2020\u202fcatalyzed the fury, collective pain, and pressures of Black life in the United States.\u202fHis death\u202fcame on the heels of two other national stories: the horrific killings of Breonna Taylor and\u202fAhmaud\u202fArberry.\u202fThe world witnessed massive demonstrations of primarily young adults, in all 50 states, in major cities,\u202fsuburbs,\u202fand\u202frural communities.\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Protest amidst the Covid-19 pandemic was noteworthy for two reasons. First, the willingness of protestors\u202fto risk catching and spreading Covid-19 reflected the dire need to take a stand against racial injustice. Second, the pandemic further\u202fexposed the\u202fimpact of systemic injustice affecting Black and Brown people: the prevalence of pre-existing medical conditions and lack of access to health care tied to racism and poverty, coupled with higher representation in \u201cessential worker\u201d roles, which carried greater risks of infection and death from Covid-19. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The cumulative impact of these killings, along with the disproportionate deaths of Black and Brown people from Covid-19, pushed me and many other Black folks beyond the customary feelings of racial fatigue into new spaces of racial trauma.\u202fAt the same time, new segments of the American population awakened to the realities of systemic injustice and white supremacy.  As\u202fthe video of George Floyd\u2019s killing went viral, millions were transfixed and horrified by the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that Officer Chauvin knelt on George Floyd\u2019s neck.\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The response internationally\u202fto the Floyd video\u202fmirrored what was happening in the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities.\u202fPeople all over the world,\u202falready connected in a unique way because of the global battle against Covid-19,\u202fjoined in affirming the value and dignity of Black lives, demanding policing reform and justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud\u202fArberry\u202fand Breonna Taylor.\u202fCrowds turned out during a global pandemic, literally risking their lives,\u202fto protest events happening\u202fin another country<\/em>.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Historically, the United States has played the role of calling out injustices in other countries and affirming human rights for those living under oppressive conditions. In this instance, the tables turned. America was being challenged to live up to its ideals of life,\u202fliberty,\u202fand justice for all.\u202fThese world-wide protests could not have been scripted or orchestrated by an individual or single group. They were a powerful symbol of solidarity signaling that the time for change had come. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Unlike other nationally profiled killings, George Floyd\u2019s death has resulted in police reform in cities and states across the country. By June 2020, at least 23 cities completely or partially banned the use of chokeholds, carotid restraints, or both by\u202fpolice.1<\/sup>\u202fOther policing reforms include duty to intervene when fellow police officers exert excessive force, reductions in police funding with reallocation for youth programs or other community services, increasing transparency, and better training and education.\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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There is once again a generation in American society\u202fthat has grown tired of racial injustice. Sustained protests in 2020 have increased awareness of long-standing racial disparities in American society.  The government, corporations, universities, and other public institutions have responded, committing funding, creating policies, and developing economic initiatives to address racial injustices. The church has primarily interpreted these events through political and cultural lenses, failing to acknowledge the spiritual significance of systemic injustice or engage in biblical responses. While holding, at best, to familiar historical patterns of response \u2013 lament, apologies, and symbolic repentance–the church has been left behind. Its racial divisions have hardened. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Reconciliation, Exhaustion, and Liberation<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Prior to 2015,\u202fracial reconciliation was a prominent theme at evangelical conferences. Multi-racial congregations, particularly mega-churches, were seeing\u202fmore\u202fBlack congregants in their churches. \u201cIn 2012, according to a report from the National Congregation Study, more than two-thirds of those attending white-majority churches were worshiping alongside at least some black congregants, a notable increase since a similar survey in 1998. This was more likely to be the case in evangelical churches than in mainline Protestant churches, and more likely in larger ones than in smaller\u202fones.\u201d2<\/sup>\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Within American evangelicalism in the\u202flast few years,\u202fracial reconciliation has become \u201ca road less travelled.\u201d The Trump presidency stoked racial division and white nationalism.\u202fFor many Black Christians in white evangelical spaces, the endorsement of Donald Trump  in 2016 by 81% of white Evangelical voters created a painful breach of trust, which contributed\u202fto an exodus of Black members from white evangelical ministries.\u202f\u202f Michael Emerson, one of the co-authors of\u202fDivided by Faith, <\/em>noted,\u202f<\/em>\u201cThe election itself was the single most harmful event to the whole movement of reconciliation in at least the past 30\u202fyears.\u201d3<\/sup>\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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That election\u202fwas one of the starkest visible expressions of the deep differences in understanding between white and Black Christians on matters of race.\u202fSubsequent research further\u202felucidated the\u202fdisconnect between Black and white Christians about race in America. The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in 2018 examined the perspectives among white Christians\u202f(including\u202fevangelicals, mainline Protestants and Catholics)\u202fcompared to whites who are religiously unaffiliated. These trends generally persist even in the wake of the recent protests for racial justice.4<\/sup>\u202fThe\u202fsurvey revealed:\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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