THREE LINES CROSSED – when George Floyd begged for air

The world watched in horror as George Floyd begged to breathe.  What added to the global disbelief was not only the brutal murder of a helpless man, but the fact that it happened at the hands of an officer who was appointed to protect the vulnerable and keep the law.  This one single act, that unfolded live on social media, suddenly became an invisible line drawn in the sand, that separated “us” and “them” – and there was no middle ground.  People immediately referred back to a dualistic default which defined George Floyd as black, the policeman as white and a society that was racist and discriminative.  Suddenly a righteous anger, legitimate and necessary, turned into a self-righteous anger and spiraled out of control

But, as events unfolded in subsequent days and protests turned violent, one began to realise that other lines were crossed as well – the line between external power and internal ethics, the line between active evil and silent evil, and the line between righteous anger and self-righteous anger.

THE LINE BETWEEN EXTERNAL POWER AND INTERNAL ETHICS

For all that witnessed the murder, it was utterly and morally reprehensible that someone who was appointed to protect and preserve used his authority to inflict death and destruction.  And even as the world watched in horror, the danger exists that the incident will be repeated many times more, in many different ways, across the globe, every day.  This was not only about the abuse of power, but a moral compass that malfunctioned.

“Power tends to corrupt,” said Lord Acton, the 19th-century British historian. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This quote was based on in psychological studies, notably the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, which was halted when one group of students arbitrarily assigned to serve as “prison guards” over another group began to abuse their wards^.[1]

But as more studies on social behaviour was done it was evident that it is not authority or power that corrupts but heightened pre-existing ethical tendencies. Which brings to mind another quote, from Abraham Lincoln: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Officer Chauvin was ultimately not acting on the authority he had and the power he felt, but on his moral and ethical convictions that already pre-existed even before George Floyd appeared on the scene

From a spiritual perspective

Oh, how true this rings from a Christian perspective.  So many religious leaders sit with a proverbial knee on their follower’s necks, leaving them breathing for air.  If the pre-existing compass in the transformed heart of a believer does not fully comprehend the servant heart of Christ, we all have the tendency to abuse our spiritual authority.  Just browse through Facebook and witness the abuse of grace in the name of truth

Serving is a position we take.  Being a servant is a choice we make.  Even within Christian ministry, there is always the danger of placing spiritual authority above spiritual redemption.  There is a quest for leadership, a desire for growth, and a pursuit for influence.  These are all legitimate ambitions, but could become vices if not approached from a position of servanthood.

There truly is only one guideline for spiritual authority: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.” (Matt 20:25-27)

Richard Rohr describes it as follows:

“The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, ego, and control to the imitation of a vulnerable God where servanthood, surrender, and simplicity reign. Of course, most people never imagine God as vulnerable, humble, or incarnate in matter. We see God as Almighty, and that vision validates almightiness all the way down the chain.”

THE LINE BETWEEN ACTIVE EVIL AND SILENT EVIL

Every news media singled out officer Chauvin and his three fellow officers for the heinous crime, but few, if any, commented on the bystanders who did nothing as well.  Someone has to ask the question:  “How is it possible that you can witness a murder, and even have the sense to film it, without the moral conviction to intervene in one way or another?  Was there really no one in the crowd with the inner conviction to step forward and do something?”  Yes, there is no doubt that such an act would have had severe consequences; arrest at the least and maybe even the same fatal outcome as George Floyd, but the words of Edmond Burke rings true in a time like this:  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.

From a spiritual perspective

How many ‘George Floyds” in the world today are pleading for spiritual breath.  As Christian bystanders we can never be satisfied to simply turn the death cry of the unreached into seminars and videos, even if it might cost us our safety and security.  We can never be happy to believe in Jesus without being filled with anguish for the lost.  We must never be satisfied to protect our own safety and security while 70 million displaced people across the globe are begging for air, while nearly 40% of the world have not heard the message of grace and salvation and while nearly half of the world’s population will go to bed hungry this evening.

Any practice of faith that turns us into silent spectators, including worship, prayer, prophesying, teaching, and even truth, becomes an abomination to God.  Faith without righteousness is as offensive as truth without justice.

Amos 5 is probably one of the most descriptive and sobering scriptures in this regard.  It addresses God’s complete and utter disgust with a religion without righteousness and justice.  An unholy religion, deprived of righteousness and justice, is an unwholesome religion, bent on unrighteousness and injustice:  (21)  “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me”. Says God almighty (22)  “Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. (23)  Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. (24)  But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

This is confirmed in Revelation 3:16 where God gives a very graphic description of how he views untransformed, lukewarm uninvolved religiosity.  “I will vomit you from my mouth” is His uncompromising sentiment.

The self-fulfilling worship without justice, worshiping on Sunday and not speaking on behalf of the oppressed on Monday, is nauseating to God.

THE LINE BETWEEN RIGHTEOUS ANGER AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

The magnified tragedy of the murder of George Floyd is that people turned righteous anger into a self-righteous anger.  What legitimately and spiritually necessitated an outcry of righteous anger and justice, was suddenly hijacked by people with own agendas as they crossed the line between tragedy and terror.    It was not about George Floyd anymore, it became personal.  It became racial, political, and social, and the memory of George Floyd and his family was sacrificed on the altar of self-righteousness.

From a spiritual perspective

One of the biggest dangers within the Christian faith is that the personal message of redemption and grace is interpreted as a self-righteous permission to judge and condemn.  We often desire to grow as new believers, but we don’t want to drop our “old self”.    The danger then is that we build Biblical principles on old values and we become self-righteous and proud.  We suddenly become aware of sin and become judgmental instead of broken and deeply aware of grace.

The death of George Floyd should have evoked an outcry of brokenness, not hatred.  Many believers understood this, and peaceful protests resulted out of s deep sense of repentance, brokenness, and empathy.  But sadly, there were those who crossed the line of self-projecting hatred and anger and use the protests for own agendas.  Self-righteousness always results in terror – righteousness always points to forgiveness and change.

My prayers for God’s intervention will start with myself, and I am once again drawn to the prayer of Francis Drake:

Francis Drake, ‘n avonturier, geskryf het by sy vertrek uit Engeland na die onbekende weskus van Suid-Amerika.

• Disturb us, Lord,
• When we are too pleased with ourselves,
• When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little
• When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
• Disturb us, Lord,
• When with the abundance of things we possess,
• we have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
• When, having fallen in love with life,
• we have ceased to dream of eternity.
• And in our efforts to build a new earth,
• we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
• Disturb us, Lord,
• To dare more boldly,
• To venture on wilder seas where storms will show Your mastery;
• Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
• We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;
• And to push back the future in strength, courage, hope and love.
• This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-power-corrupts-37165345/