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This may seem an odd spot to voice my thoughts on this subject- and hopefully I'll still have a home tomorrow when it posts- But here we go.
George Floyd was a criminal, righteously arrested.
The police who arrested him, however, were a lynch mob. Not uncommon in Minneapolis. Have we so soon forgot about how officer Mohammed Noor shot through the drivers side door of the cop car he was in, OVER his partner's lap, and killed a woman- actually the person who called them to the scene- in her pajamas, not three years ago.
Justine Diamond's death should have started a sweeping out of the bad apples in the MPD. That it didn't is testified to by the fact that the four cops who lynched George Floyd all had records that should have seen them in alternate employment years ago- especially the one who put his knee on the man's neck.
The coroner says it wasn't what the cop did, but Floyd's "underlying medical conditions" that killed him. No, it was the knee on the neck that did it, because if it hadn't been there, his underlying conditions wouldn't have killed him at that moment.
So now the 'protesters' come out, and once again show their intelligence and true motives by destroying anything in their paths, whether these cops, these stores, these reporters, had anything to do with it or not. They think "it's the only way they'll listen to us"- those that do think- but the only ones listening to actions like these are the racists who are sitting at home, using the video of this 'message' to help groom little racists that may one day become the next generation of police.
Yeah, there are people listening to the looting, the burning. And what they hear is, "We're a bunch of Satan-driven animals, nothing more- nothing less".
And you know who all these people are- the rioters, the cops, the racists? They are the ones we talked about last week when I pointed out what Jesus and Stephan both said- "Forgive them, Lord, they know not what they do."
Here's what WE need to take from all this garbage- forgiveness like this is a lot harder than it seems, a lot more than, "I forgive you, but I hope the National Guard runs your --- to prison". It makes you really appreciate the courage of the people in the stories where the survivor of a murder victim forgives, even witnesses, to the killer.
God doesn't allow everyone to have to go through that example. But what I am seeing is that He expects us ALL to try to achieve that level of forgiving in a situation like this one. We are to pray, "Forgive them, Father"- and MEAN it- in hopes that maybe just ONE person in one of those crowds in one of these cities might be rescued by God.
It was so easy in the abstract last weekend, wasn't it? This morning, it's here, real and hard as a rock. Can you still do it? Can I?
On forgiveness, think about this for a minute.
ReplyDeleteSuppose you belong to a Christian church, and suppose you are an Elder in that church. That's a lot of responsibility, some of which is often overlooked, and a lot of authority, which sometimes exceeds its ambit. Nonetheless, here you are.
One fine Tuesday evening you draw the short straw and have to audit the church financial records. There's not much for it but to dig in and get it done, so after work, after dinner, you roll up your sleeves and get started.
And you find a few entries you don't understand, so you dig for an explanation. You don't like what you find, so you do another review on Wednesday, and another review on Thursday. On Friday you call the Pastor and carefully explain to him what you've got and how you found it.
One of the three church trustees has been augmenting his income with a little skim. Not much, just enough to accumulate enough to pay for the new boat / car / college education he bought last year.
Hey, it's a big church, alright?
Now the question is, Biblically speaking, do you forgive this man?
Absolutely. If your church actually follows the teachings of Jesus, follows the Bible, then the church must forgive him - or it (collectively) commits a sin. So you forgive him, and the whole business is messy, but that's church for you. Messy.
Now even though he's forgiven, the one thing that he's not allowed to do ever again is to be put in charge of money. The man cannot handle the temptation of money, so don't test him.
In the case of rioters, by all means forgive them. However, they should never be allowed to be placed into a position where they can take part in a riot. Ever.
That's how forgiveness works.
Absolutely. I am not remotely talking about reversing their temporal consequences, or even ABOUT their consequences. The battle on earth is one thing, the battle for eternity is another. Arrests, lengthened terms in jail for disruptors, ANTIFA as a terrorist organization, tear gas, I have no problem with. I speak to our attitude after the event.
DeleteProtestors like we are seeing on the news do not help George Floyd or his family. We see it and think what the point is of all the rioting and such and think Americans are idiots. Which they are not, well some are but not all.
ReplyDeleteNo, they're not, but the percentage seems to grow every day.
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