 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Saturday, January 28, 2023 These Difficult Days…How then do we live?And how do we speak of the Beatitudes tomorrow?  Yesterday across the world Yesterday, January 27, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s shocking that a quarter of Dutch persons under 40 don’t believe that the holocaust ever happened – or that it was exaggerated, even though every one of their grandparents knew – and their great grandparents suffered those years – and knew Jews who died. 50 years ago nobody doubted it. In the USA, the numbers are still worse: 2/3 of Americans of that same age do not even know that 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in the holocaust. I wonder who has failed to discuss this with our children in school or at home that there is such widespread ignorance – or denial? The Church has a responsibility to tell the truth, and to be the truth. We can’t live with conspiracy theories, “fake news”, and ignorance of what the power of evil can do – especially when it is allied with religion. German Christians mostly refused to challenge Hitler or his SS. Worse, many of those who worked for him and served his regime of terror considered themselves to be Christians. We have committed ourselves to “respect the dignity of every human being.” That’s one of our baptismal vows. With anti-Semitism on the rise in the USA, Christians had better put ourselves in its way, and give it no space to grow or to be been as legitimate. Not even a “joke” – not even a hint that maybe it wasn’t so bad – not a whisper of acceptability or respectability. We can’t let this happen again Or think it couldn’t.   The Murder in Memphis – Why would Black policemen behave like the worst of racist cops? Tyre Nichols, Memphis photographer, a young Black man with no criminal history, was beaten “to a pulp” a few days ago by five Black policemen, and died three days later. We used to believe that putting more Black and brown policemen on the force would change it. It seems obvious that that isn’t enough. When Black men are given power-over other persons by virtue of a badge and a gun, they often seem to respond exactly like white ones. The new Memphis Police Chief, Cerelyn J Davis is making big changes in the police culture, in the way officers are hired and trained. They came too late for Tyre Nichols. Those five officers were already on the force. Chief Davis quickly moved to fire all five officers and made a video for the police department as well as for the public, making it clear that she will never support criminal behavior by officers. She was open and direct about what she saw on that video – making no excuses for the officers. That will make a difference. The evidence was overwhelming. It is clear that Trye Nichols did nothing to warrant any of this. He was not a threat to any of them, or to anyone else. He was no criminal. He was simply on his way home. We Christians have got to speak with a single voice. The Memphis churches are, thankfully, Black and white. Violence begets fear and increased violence. And that’s all it does. And police officers do not have any unlimited, right to use it. They have been charged already with murder. And they should have been. Please pray for the family of this young man, for Chief Davis and for all who will protest, for the whole community of Memphis, for the Episcopal churches there, and for all decent officers who will also suffer because of this.   |
Categories:
Tags:
No responses yet