While Christians may agree or disagree on the so called, “Stand-Your-Ground” law, I want to encourage you to head on over to the website of Riverside Baptist Church and read, “DEAR WHITE CHRISTIANS OF FLORIDA: AN OPEN LETTER“. Here’s an excerpt:
“Here is my premise and I dare you to prove me wrong: if white Christians in Florida stood up and cried out for justice, demanding an end to the license-to-kill-stand-your-ground law, it would be rescinded immediately. Where is your conscience? Where is the little light you promised to shine for Christ? You have put it beneath a bushel and suffocated it. You know as well as anyone that teen-agers should not be killed for playing loud music. But then, we all know don’t we, that Jordan Davis was not killed for playing loud music. He was killed for being an uppity black kid who dared to smart off to a drunken white man with a concealed weapon’s permit.”
I think it is about time, that our fellow “white” brothers and sisters in Christ stand up for obvious injustice, just as they did during the Civil Rights era.
Why?
Because opinions on the murders like we have seen in Florida with Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis continue to be split along racial lines as we argue everything but the obvious, that a young teenager did not deserve to die regardless of his skin-color, because they looked suspicious or because they would not turn down their music.
Can we even agree that skin color played a role? Seems to me that we cannot even do that.
Do all Christians agree on gun control? Of course not, but since the Republican party is viewed as being synonymous with being a Christian (which it is NOT), the party has been allowed to be the “pro-gun” party. Yet, while many darker-skinned people may associate themselves with the Democratic party because of civil rights issues, they also tend to side with the Republican party on this issue in order in a desire to be armed to protect themselves from crime in their own communities as well as the from members of the dominant society (e.g. KKK).
So this leads to the point, that had the roles been reversed, we have decades of proof showing that the gun laws in Florida would be currently up for debate as our justice system would not allow the killing of someone in the dominant-society by the minority group in this society. We would also have a narrative in the media that would spark a national outrage. For example, lets remember that the right to bear arms in California certainly changed with the Black Panther party (and for a further look at this issue, may I strongly encourage the reading of this article titled, The Racist Roots of Gun Control.)
Overall, it is refreshing to hear a pastor from the dominant society speak out. As a darker-skinned Brother-in-Christ, my voice often goes unheard because my lighter-skinned brothers and sisters tend to remain silent or defend what seems to be obvious with the “Yes, but…”.
Sometimes there is no, “Yes but…”.
Everyone loves to love Martin Luther King, so many would do well to remember his words from, “Letter From Birmingham Jail”:
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
Source: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/annotated_letter_from_birmingham/
…and more importantly, the words from the Word of God in Proverbs which says,
An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Furious Fathering 