Its been a difficult month in America as race relations sink to a new low. How should Christians respond in these challenging times.
The shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Philando Castile in Minnesota, and five police officers in Dallas have left a dark shadow over America.
John Stonestreet of Breakpoint writes that while its easy to retreat to our pet causes, explanations, and scapegoats, we’d be wiser to listen to the tweeted words of Florida Pastor H.B. Charles, “The Bible exhorts us to weep with those who weep. It doesn’t tell us to judge whether they should be weeping.”
Stonestreet advises us to first and unequivocally say every human life is precious and valuable because it bears the very image of God. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “You’ve never met a mere mortal… Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.”
He also points out that we need to acknowledge that the recent events are a surface explosion of issues long present in our society concluding, “We’re not okay, folks, and we haven’t been in quite a while. These horrible events are not creating unrest; rather they are revealing it.
What should Christians do in response? Stonestreet writes, first, pray. Second, be quick to listen and slow to speak and finally focus our efforts on rebuilding those institutions able to address the problems we face.