The Deceit of Righteous Anger, White Privilege, Appeasement, and Where Christian Leaders Went Wrong
Lets be clear upfront, George Floyd was murdered. In fact, from the very beginning, there was universal agreement on this except for a few fringe elements. President Trump immediately dispatched the DOJ for oversight, charges were filed, and later, arrests were made. The right and left agreed…for about five minutes. Then the riots started. As a result, and in hopes of appeasement and without any evidence, racism became the subject of the national conversation.
Even though there was no evidence that pointed to the police being on nothing more than a power trip, community leaders began to foolishly speak of the incident as if Minneapolis was 1960’s Mississippi. The same old insane talking points of white privilege and 400 years of racism began to show back up. While our “brave” religious leaders spoke of racism, pallets of bricks were being prepositioned, subversive plants were being inserted into communities, and people were being organized into riotous mobs. The country apologized for crimes it didn’t commit while these subversive groups took advantage and instigated mass insanity in many major cities. As usual, political answers failed to solve a spiritual problem.
A few days later, we are left with the contrast of two videos. One of a black man in Minneapolis with a knee on his neck and surrounded by cops. The other of a Dallas store owner, beaten nearly to death, and surrounded by an angry mob. One dead and one nearly dead. Both being a symbol of division created by lies, and each motionless body contrasted with their assailants by the color of their skin.
As a Christian, my viewpoint comes from a Christian perspective and the solutions originate from the Bible. Likewise, Christian leaders are supposed to approach worldly issues with a spiritual solution. They are to be the individuals that see the supernatural conspiracy behind the earthly controversy. Instead, there is now such a rush to be the first one with an opinion, gain political points, or even earnestly appease the masses that they end up propagating the very lies in which they were called to dispel.
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy on Christian leadership, he states:
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.”
It seems many of us tend to focus on the first portion of this passage at the cost of the second. As many Christian leaders found out recently, you cannot pursue peace without avoiding the foolish, ignorant controversies. Let’s be clear: the ideas that there is a subconscious racism present in every white American that must be a consistent source of sorrow and that a Black American is unsafe walking down the street is a foolish and ignorant controversy. That is not to say the country does not have problems, both spiritual and physical. Obviously, the riots, and their cause show that issues exist. But there is a need is to properly identify the root of these problems. Luckily for us, Paul lists them shortly after his warning to Timothy:
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”
Whether we are discussing the murder of George Floyd or the resulting riots, we can easily see the presence of this list of sins in recent human behavior. What is lacking from the previously mentioned warning or the above list is righteous anger and white privilege. Instead, those talking points are excuses for the inexcusable behavior presented by Paul. Also, notice how Paul points out the attributes of “unappeasable” and “the appearance of godliness”. Righteous anger and deep unknowable sins are exactly what an “appearance of godliness” looks like. Hijacking the moral high ground to excuse lawlessness, whether behind a badge or behind a protest sign, is to take what is good and abuse it for your own purposes. It is more about the appearance and not the reality.
To take it a step further, kowtowing and giving up one’s ordained mantle of leadership to attempt at appeasing the unappeasable, because they are making a lot of noise, is diving headlong into the trap. What is the purpose of that beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit and his discernment if we allow the masses to determine our morals and outrage for us? Instead, there is a better way.
When we recognize the issues before us as deceitful, there is only one place to turn. Paul tells Timothy:
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
We Christians must learn to transcend these contrived emergencies and stay focused on our true calling. There is no doubt that the Gospel brings peace and the Gospel does not take sides. It is designed for the victim and the perpetrator equally. Therefore, even if I am absolutely wrong and all of the worst things are true about racism and injustice in America, our goal and mission does not change. Even if the worst is true, we do not let the mobs dictate our message and actions. The Bible does not have a mission for a time of peace and one for time of strife. It is the same always, so we still end up at the same point Paul describes above. It is then of the utmost importance that we move back to that source of instruction and purpose and away from appeasement. We are here to reconcile not appease, and Paul makes it clear in Romans that reconciliation only comes through Christ. It is time for Christians to take back that message that we so readily politicized and gave away to the abusive, brutal, and heartless, as well as abandon the lies that tie down our mission.
