Like many people, I have spent the last week trying to process my anger and frustration at the murder of George Floyd. Feelings often point to questions but seldom give the answers. And the lack of answers has only compounded the frustration. Why does this keep happening? When will we change? Why can’t we do better? It would be a lot easier if this was just a police problem or an American problem, but viewing another senseless death through those lenses won’t likely get us any closer to an answer. I have to come to terms with the fact that this is my problem.
Numb from the news coverage that fuels more despair than it resolves, last night we watched, The Eye of the Storm, as a family. It’s a 1970s documentary about a third-grade teacher named Jane Elliott who, in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, tried to help her class of white students feel the impact of racism. Then we listened to accounts of people of African descent tell their stories of discrimination. And we prayed. I’m not qualified to speak to all of the changes that need to take place in our society if we are to deal with racism and take Jesus’ command seriously to love our neighbour. But I offer up the following as a sample prayer that I hope will guide our family’s response in the days to come.
1. Help me see my blindness in areas of prejudice.
It shows my blindness that I’m still surprised by terrible acts of violence against people of colour. I’m able to be surprised because I don’t see and haven’t adequately educated myself in the myriad of ways that I consciously and unconsciously contribute to the problem. I need to listen better and learn more.
2. Show me how I can heal racial divides.
I want to congratulate myself for not committing gross and insensitive acts of prejudice, but God demands better. The call to love my neighbour as myself requires that I take positive steps towards reconciliation and more just treatment of those who face discrimination.
3. Comfort people of colour in our community who are hurting because of George Floyd’s murder.
Watching the news this week made me feel angry, frustrated and powerless. But what I felt is just a fraction of that felt by those for whom Floyd’s death was one more crime in a long series of injustices felt personally throughout their lives. I pray that God’s compassion would heal their pain.
4. Help us to build in our church a picture of the way forward for our world.
I’m not surprised that there is injustice in the world. But the church is supposed to be different. Even in a congregation like ours that celebrates its diversity, I’m not naïve to the fact that there are still unacceptable attitudes that contribute to a culture of racial bias. I pray that God would give us eyes to see and repent and build a path toward true gospel unity.
5. Tear down the structures, institutions and attitudes that perpetuate racism in our nation.
I love Canada and I’m proud of our multiculturalism, but I often ignore the fact that slavery was practiced here for over 200 years and racial segregation continued long after that. We live in a country in which racial prejudice has informed the very institutions that shape our lives, and people of colour suffer as a result. I pray that God would dismantle the systems that preserve white privilege.
I need to do more than pray, but I can’t do less. Will you join me in this prayer? If I’m going to change and if our world is going to heal, we need the help that only God can provide. He is the One who commands, “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause” (Isaiah 1:17). And He enables us to do what He calls us to.
In awe of Him,
Paul
