Last night I was listening to an AM radio show that was taking local callers to weigh in on the recent beating of an 18 year old boy from Homewood by three police officers. It was a very controversial subject for sure, and people called in to express their opinions which were wide-ranging. The topic of racial profiling came up frequently, with some folks being strongly in favor of it and some folks being strongly against it. Since it happened in Homewood, people were making all kinds of generalizations about the neighborhood... "it's like this" or "it's like that." I wonder if those callers had ever actually spent any time getting to know the people who live in Homewood, or were they just expressing opinions about a place they had never been to and only heard negative things about?
The radio show was fascinating because the issue brought to the surface many stereotypes or opinions that most people do not ordinarily express out loud (especially in a public forum). Some blamed the problems in Homewood on personal brokenness, and other blamed the problems on systematic brokenness. The truth is that there are many different reasons for brokenness (since we live in a fallen world with both personal and systematic evil). As Christians, we are called to lean into solving these issues even though there is a temptation to run away from messy issues (especially those involving race and culture). Also, no person is really qualified to give an opinion on what is wrong with Homewood or how to fix Homewood until they have actually spent time in the neighborhood, getting to know the people and the systems. For a fascinating case study on this, just read the book of Nehemiah in Old Testament. Before Nehemiah did one thing to fix the city from afar, he traveled to Jerusalem to listen and take things in. His heart broke, and then he acted powerfully on both a personal and systematic justice level. He presents a great model for how Christians should address complex urban issues of brokenness.
No comments:
Post a Comment