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Dear Parish Faithful,
"For I demand steadfast love (or mercy) and not sacrifice." (Hos. 6:7; Matt. 12:7)
This link is to the statement issued by the OCA's Holy Synod in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on Monday, May 25. I read this to those who joined the Liturgy on Sunday either through Zoom or Facebook live streaming. So much has happened since then, that it may already sound a bit dated, but I thought to send it out to everyone so that you can read how our hierarchs are responding to such injustice.
I am very supportive of such a statement. Yet, on a personal level - or according to my humble opinion - I find this statement rather tepid and even rather perfunctory. Meaning, it has the tone of an official statement articulating the obvious in a conventional manner; writing something that had to be written in just the expected style and tone. It deplores the killing of George Floyd and condemns racism, all of which are good and necessary. However, I do wish that more was said - or will be said in the future from "official channels" - about the repeated cases of police violence against black people (and other minorities?). How this has become systemic and that nothing has really been done about it over the years besides police "sensitivity training."
This is precisely why the reputations of good, decent policemen (the majority, I believe) who are not racist and who do their jobs in a conscientious manner unseen by the public on a given day, are being tarnished.
In today's world, the public - meaning both black and white people - are no longer going to passively accept this kind of injustice enacted with seeming impunity. In today's world of ubiquitous social media, any such brutality can no longer remain hidden. People now rise up in protest, which is an American civil right, and many do so with passion.
The roots of this American "right to protest" are found in the Boston Tea Party, an event that we now treat with near-mythic status, though it resulted in the destruction of property. Closer to our time, there was a character in the 70's film, "Network," who, though slightly imbalanced, would repeatedly say: "I am as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!" And other disenfranchised people picked up this refrain. We (white people) while justifiably deploring rioting and looting, none of which can possibly honor the memory of George Floyd (as his own brother has publicly stated) or further the cause of seeking justice for all, will never be able to quite understand the anger and despair of the black community which continues to suffer the consequences of the racism very much alive in our country to this day.
The Gospel is about justice and mercy for all human beings. It is not about power and privilege. Unfortunately, the escalating chaos is obscuring the initial impetus behind the protest. Yet, it is on these Gospel principles of justice and mercy that we need to focus if our real interest is building up a civil society based on respect and dignity for all.
