FACING UP to Ferguson Continued

in the midst of this recent storm of violence and unbridled rage. Without the church’s influence American society will not be able to stand. Rage only fuels rage from those that we strike out against. Through all this we have found there are some persons who

have determined that all police officers are wicked and an evil force. I have not come to that conclusion. We need police. We need police officers who are men and women of goodwill and who understand their role as those who serve and protect, and not those who are trigger happy and ready to use deadly force on unarmed individuals.

The St. Louis community in Missouri, is now much divided on what happened with the shooting of Michael Brown and the way things were handled in the aftermath of the shooting. Our problems on this issue appear to be an outgrowth of the larger issues of racial division and distrust that have never been properly resolved. Even the church seems to have mixed feelings about how to deal with racism. Some have determined to ignore it while others have decided it is the will of God that we confront racism and work toward overcoming its effects. On Ash Wednesday of this year, more than 20 churches came together to institute a call to prayer and fasting for our metropolitan area. More than 3,000 people showed up that night in 6°F weather to call on the Lord, asking for God’s hand to intervene in our fractured society. We were trusting and believing God to honor our prayers which were based upon 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

We prayed in faith because we did not believe that the weapons

of this world would be sufficient for the challenges before us. People have marched, pleaded, cried, screamed, sung, protested, sued in the courts, voted in the elections, rioted and looted in the streets! In return they have been pepper sprayed, tear gassed, shouted down, arrested, beaten, denigrated and their anguished voices often ignored. Their frustration turned into anger, their anger turned to bitterness and bitterness turned to violence, and when the violence could not be focused at those who were violent toward them they have too often focused it on one another. Please pray for Ferguson, Missouri, and for all the other cities

and towns where violence is all too commonplace and where the Word of God is not received as truth. Pray for police officers, that they will walk in peace and be committed to love justice and act with mercy. Pray for the church of Jesus Christ, that we will not be impotent bystanders, but active participants in proclaiming truth to power and love to those who are without the love of God. Ronald Bobo, Sr., is pastor of West Side Missionary Baptist

Church in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, and a member of the BWA Commission on Evangelism and the Human Resources Committee.

It is important that the

still serve as an AGENT OF PEACE in the midst of this recent storm of

violence and unbridled rage. 28 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

CHURCH CHURCH I

Not On My Watch by Que English

remember watching the movie “12 Years a Slave,” where the director created a longer-than-usual hanging scene with star Chiwetel Ejiofor. You see Ejiofor gasping for breath and prolonging death by struggling to keep his toes on the ground. The scene appears to last forever as the audience anticipates the worst. While watching the scene it wasn’t the hanging that caught my attention the most. It was what was happening while he was yet hanging: the mothers were cooking, the children were playing, the fathers were working, as the perpetrator watched on with beaded-eyes — while he was yet hanging. It was business as usual while he was yet hanging. It is not that much different today as we the church watch our children, families and communities die a slow death through the affixation of racism and poverty. Why is this? The common statement we hear is “this is how it’s always

been.” What needs to change with this statement as the church is “this may be how it’s always been but this is not how it’s going to stay!” It’s the church becoming revolutionists in this day and hour where we don’t turn a blind eye to the ills of society and continue with business as usual. It is at times like these we must stand together to declare, “Not On My Watch!” Racially-based stop and frisk practices are prevalent in our neighborhoods, targeting our young men of color with assurance of feeding the financial machine of the prison industrial complex that is truly our modern day slavery. Thirty-five cents an hour and it’s legal! We haven’t lost the fire hoses, the police dogs and the bully clubs. Not really. They’ve been exchanged for psychological warfare through the incidences in Ferguson, Cleveland and New York; brutality in prisons, handcuffing children, minors serving time in adult prisons, police killing our children and serving no time, where grand jury non-indictments are the flavor of the day. It’s a different kind of violence. We hear often the system is broken. If it’s broken then why do we turn to it to fix our people? A broken system cannot restore what it perpetuates. You cannot heal what you’ve pained. This is where the church steps in. After the marches, after the rallies, after the protests, after the anger and after the emotional high and indignation, the question remains: What are we going to do next? This is the question for the church. Not only what are we going to do next but what are we doing to minimize future outbreaks. The church must step up in a greater way to pave the way to healing. We don’t have to look far to see the ideologies of Jim Crow

plastering our nation. When we read some of the proposed policies, passed policies and Supreme Court decision on voters’ rights, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the deliberate, evil devised, well thought out plan of some to widen the divide. It’s not just the physical incarceration they’re after. It’s the mental, social and economic imprisonment that has far greater consequences than the former. Racism, poverty and the crippling effects of the anemic

condition of our economy have contributed to where we are today. The system may be broken yet there is still hope. As we

reflect as the church, we must agree that we are not advocates of removing our public safety officers. That would be foolish. But while we embrace police safety we shun police brutality. We have exemplary police officers who are doing amazing work and care about the work they do. We need them because we’re not ignorant