Last week Americans watched in horror as a white policeman in Minneapolis slowly killed a black man in his custody.
Americans were outraged. The policeman was arrested and charged with murder. The President expressed outrage and ordered the Justice Department to investigate. Even those commentators who strongly support the police like Sean Hannity of Fox News were quick to condemn the murder. It looked for a moment that Americans of all political persuasions had come into unity as they mourned together.
Then all hell broke loose on the streets of Minneapolis, a city never known as a center of racial conflict. The city officials, all of whom were liberals and many of who were black, were accused of racism. The protestors demanded that more be done to the policeman, apparently forgetting the Constitutional requirements which protect all Americans who are accused of a crime. It was sad to see a peaceful protest turn into a lynch mob. Then began the violence, burning, and looting. Many of their victims were black businessmen.
Soon the protest and the rioting spread to other cities. In Dallas, for example, protestors charged that the police were racist, even though the mayor and the police chief are both black. The police chief, a courageous lady, appealed to the crowd for calm. She had bricks thrown at her and her tires were slashed. Many businesses were vandalized and looted, and again many of the victims were black businessman.
As the week wore on Americans began to wonder how peaceful, and often prayerful, demonstrations could turn into riots. After being forced to mobilize the National Guard, the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, said that there was an “organized attempt to destabilize civil society. “He believed that as many as 80% of the violent demonstrators came from outside of the city or state. They were able to turn peaceful demonstrations into a rioting mob by playing off their anger and frustration in Minneapolis and then throughout America.
The Bible says that anger does not produce a righteous life (James 1:20), and faith leaders like Dallas Reverend Peter Johnson, a former member of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s staff, warns against succumbing to it. He advocates controlled, purposeful, nonviolent protest and has advised people to avoid the current demonstrations. He says “you can’t allow provocateurs who have lost their sense of direction to take control”. Defeating racism “boils down to devotion to faith and trust in God, “practicing non-violence in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr and others, and not adopting revenge but instead being able to “rise above the rage.”
It seems clear that the strategy of Satan in this hour is to incite rage; first against the murderer, then against the police, then against the cities themselves, and finally against the rioters and even the peaceful protesters. With rage, Satan divides us to control us.
We must come against the strategy in the opposite spirit: love not hate, forgiveness not anger, and unity not division.
On Pentecost Sunday, as many of our cities still smoldered from hate, we remembered how the 120 believers came together in one accord and received the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. Before the day was over 3000 had been converted and the Church was born. It was unity that made the way for the Holy Spirit and the salvation of souls and that is why Satan fights so hard against unity.
Let us pray that the fires of rage will be extinguished and peace will return to our cities. Let us also pray that the provocateurs will be silenced and the voices of reconciliation will prevail.
Above all, pray for unity so we can work together to end the evil of racial division.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. “ – Ephesians 4:3