Sunday was the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. His death came as the result of a very unfortunate conflict with Officer Darren Wilson. This incident caused our nation to slip deeper into the chasm of the racial divide. Or it could be said that we went deeper into the sea of the race matrix that has plagued our nation since its inception. Though some tried to have healthy and constructive dialogues and strategic action meetings, they were drowned out by extreme political ideology. Some leaders seemed more enamored with cameras than solutions, violent riots overshadowed peaceful demonstrations, and in some cases movements lacked true leadership or a clear end game.
The tensions between under-resourced, African American communities and police departments are not new. Individual and systemic racism is not new. This not a one-year-old problem. The ministry I serve, World Impact, was initially birthed out of the Watts Riots. These riots began after a violent altercation between an African American family and the Police in 1965. Along with this history, this past year has been one filled with grief for me, personally. Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland, The Mother Emmanuel AME Church Nine… Did we learn anything from the past? Or did we simply choose to forget?
I could move beyond this year and mention Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and even go way back and mention Emmett Till. But again to go there you would have to be willing to see the reasoning in connecting the distant past with this past year and even with today. You don’t even have to buy into a narrative that these lives are all connected in order for your heart to be deeply grieved. But I’m not grieved just by what has transpired this past year, nor is my grieving just limited to the loss of these lives. Yes, we must address the deaths of unarmed African Americans, and you don’t have to spew anti-Police rhetoric to do it. You don’t have to spark violent riots to do it. All you have to do is recognize that we live in an upside-down, sinful, broken, and dysfunctional world. You don’t have to demonize people in order to acknowledge this. All you have to do is realize what Christ realized at the conclusion of Matthew 9. He looked at the multitude and had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. This multitude that Christ looked upon was full of sin, oppression, corruption, division, and death. This is true in our nation today. But, Christ had a solution. A solution that included new life, healing, empowerment and transformation. We need healing, transformation, empowerment, and conversion of the multitudes today.
I know a lot of good police officers. I have been touched, blessed, and helped by them on many occasions. I have also been the victim of racial profiling, and some of those incidents included the police. I have come to realize that in every field and in every system there is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, right and wrong. If we would become humble enough to acknowledge the brokenness within humanity and with all of our systems and institutions, we could move toward solutions. There are multitudes of people who are like sheep without a shepherd. Some are poor and marginalized. Some are in positions of authority. If we would take the time to embrace this truth, we could begin to solve the root of the problem that has brought so much grief this past year.
Our criminal justice system is broken and we don’t have to throw police officers as a whole under the bus to address that fact. Racism is still real and we don’t have to throw all White People under the bus to address that fact. A culture of “Thug-ology” that has led to many homicides and shootings that are Black on Black is real and we don’t have to throw all inner-city Black males under the bus to address that. We have lost a value of life in the womb, but we don’t have to throw any woman under the bus to address that. How we address these social ills, sins, and injustices, is first by taking on the same compassionate mission that Christ showed us.
We need a Kingdom-advancing and compassionate mission focused on African American urban youth and families as well as Police Officers. It is very possible for the Church to be a force of liberation and reconciliation in the spirit and theology of J. Deotis Roberts and Martin Luther King, Jr. Incorporating their theologies and strategies into modern day ministry models is the urgent work of the church. The urban church must work individually and collectively with Missions and Para Church organizations to professionalize urban youth and family ministry right now. Police Chaplains must see themselves as missionaries to Police Officers right now. The Church must work collectively and compassionately across denomination, urban and suburban, and race right now to develop a Kingdom-advancing and reconciling agenda that is rooted in compassion, justice, mercy, and healing. There are already many ministries that are taking on this challenge and have been in the trenches for a long time, but there are not enough. And in too many cases the Church is fractured, segregated, and too focused inwardly on unhealthy issues that aren’t relevant for today’s mission field.
The Church must also be willing to break the chains of slavery and leave behind the plantations of extreme political ideologies, false theologies, materialism, and modern day Towers of Babel. Only a Free Church surrendered to the Kingdom of God can lovingly, boldly, and non-violently take on the demonic forces of injustice, racism, thug-ology, materialism, and Herod-like leadership structures. There must be servant-leaders in the Church who are willing to be bridges of reconciliation and ambassadors of the Kingdom of God in these troubled times.
Yes, my heart is grieved, but my spirit is hopeful and determined. Let us work together as children of God and citizens of God’s Kingdom to extend truth, transformation, justice, love, reconciliation, and new life within this broken reality before us.
Efrem Smith is the President and CEO of World Impact.
