I don't believe in predestination or fate. I don't like hearing people say that something happened because it was God's plan because it is almost always said after a tragedy. When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans there were some that said it was God's punishment for their sin. Claiming God's punishment is another way of saying God's plan has been fulfilled.
This last weekend George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin.
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, Zimmerman said he didn't regret any of the actions he took the night he killed Trayvon. If he could do it again he would do everything the same. He would follow and kill Trayvon Martin all over again, knowing that Trayvon was guilty of no crimes because he feels it's what God wanted.
As a Christian, this is terrifying. It's a theology of God using us to met out judgement. It's a theology that is as wrong as it is dangerous. And it's the theology of a man who killed a teenager and was acquitted for it.
Justice was not served with that acquittal. It's fairly certain now that they fought each other and that Trayvon felt threatened by Zimmerman. His own account of what happened says that when he and Trayvon met up Trayvon asked him what his problem was and the girl who was on the phone with Trayvon said she heard as much herself.
Trayvon felt threatened by a man who was following him, confronted him, and the man reached immediately into his pocket. According to Zimmerman that was the point that Trayvon punched him in the nose.
We can't know what Trayvon was thinking that night but it is possible that Trayvon felt that the man who had been stalking him was reaching for a weapon. Zimmerman was so convinced that Trayvon was guilty and didn't think how his actions would look to an innocent person.
And so we wound up with a dead teenager. Zimmerman profiled Trayvon as a criminal and assumed his guilt by the way he looked. Trayvon profiled Zimmerman and assumed he was a pervert or somebody looking for trouble based on the way he looked and acted. In the end, profiling left a young man dead.
There have also been cries of Zimmerman's racism since this case first came to light. Ultimately, after examination of all the evidence there really hasn't been anything to suggest racial prejudice being the reason behind Zimmerman's actions, at least not anymore than most people have inherently coming from our broken society.
But there was racism at play here. Zimmerman was acquitted when there have been other cases, also in Florida, where a 69 year old man was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 years in prison in an incredibly similar situation. That man was black. There's a case where a woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing warning shots (not actually shooting to hit anybody or accidentally hitting anybody) to keep her husband, who had previously abused her, from doing it again. That woman was black.
The racism in the Zimmerman case isn't his racism, it's societies. We have institutionalized racism. Society has taught us that black people, males especially, are dangerous. When a black man kills a white man there's no reasonable doubt to be found that he didn't have to, even though the white man was 28 years younger, confronted him, and had served in the military. When a hispanic man kills a black teen there's reasonable doubt that he didn't have to. Maybe he really felt threatened enough to pull the trigger. Never mind how the teen felt in the situation.
Trayvon Martin looked like the kids that I see and work with every day. He had tattoos, wore a hoody, white tennis shoes, and baggy pants. And just like the kids that I see, he was judged for looking like that. He was judged as a criminal for wearing certain clothes. Clothes that people have decided means that you're a thug, or to put it more aptly, a punk and up to no good.
It's the same thing that people assume about the people in this inner city neighborhood in Albany, NY. If you dress like that, and come from here, you must be guilty. I've seen it in Albany, in Memphis, and I've seen it in Detroit. This is what causes people to fear coming to inner city neighborhoods. Everybody must be a criminal. We ignore the realities of crime, particularly violent crime in these neighborhoods. That the person committing the crime almost always knows the victim, that violent crime never really happens before 10 pm and most of it is after midnight. That you are just as safe outside our building at lunch time as you are in the expensive part of town. It's just the people dress differently and the music sounds different. But what is key to remember is that they are still people. And as people they have some of the same fears, insecurities, and dreams you have.
And that's something George Zimmerman never took into account. He saw somebody that he thought looked like a punk and a criminal and acted like they were guilty beyond a doubt. He took the way somebody looked and used it to dehumanize them so that he could forget that they might be afraid, or might think he looks suspicious, or might be innocent of any crime. Zimmerman never thought about this because he's human, broken, and selfish just like the rest of us. This is not to excuse him but we risk dehumanizing him just like he dehumanized Trayvon.
As a Christian community we need to respond to this tragedy. Not because Zimmerman was acquitted, but because Trayvon is dead. If Zimmerman had been convicted it would still require our action. Our action must be to first educate ourselves, and then educate others, on getting rid of the prejudices that we have. And that's difficult. Because prejudice isn't a conscious action. It stems from little things, usually societal, that shape us to see things a certain way. We act on prejudices all the time, sometimes positively, often negatively. You don't consciously recognize it, it's an automatic response. But we can learn to control it. Take breathing (congratulations, you are now aware of how you're breathing). When you think about it you can control it. You can stop it, slow it down, speed it up, shorten it, and lengthen it. Breathing is one of the easiest automatic responses we have to control. Controlling prejudice is much harder. It takes a lot of effort to remind yourself, over and over, that a certain article of clothing, or type of music, or yes, the color of somebody's skin, does not make them dangerous. It is a hugely difficult thing to do but the inability to control it is exactly what led to an innocent teenager being killed. Two different people with two different set of prejudices both assumed the worst about each other. They both assumed the guilt of the other. They both were unwilling to have any reasonable doubt that the other was innocent.
In the end it was other people's reasonable doubt that led to Zimmerman's acquittal.
Perhaps we can start with that. Start with reasonable doubt anytime we start to judge somebody without knowing a thing about them. Give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe, just maybe, they aren't out to get you, aren't a punk, aren't guilty.
Maybe if we can extend just that little bit of mercy, we can avoid another innocent persons death. We can avoid the violence that is very much not in God's plan. We can speak out against violence with acts of love and compassion. We can break violence with open hearts. We can begin heal ourselves through the hard effort it takes to get rid of our prejudices.
And maybe begin to heal the world.
Amen.
This last weekend George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin.
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, Zimmerman said he didn't regret any of the actions he took the night he killed Trayvon. If he could do it again he would do everything the same. He would follow and kill Trayvon Martin all over again, knowing that Trayvon was guilty of no crimes because he feels it's what God wanted.
As a Christian, this is terrifying. It's a theology of God using us to met out judgement. It's a theology that is as wrong as it is dangerous. And it's the theology of a man who killed a teenager and was acquitted for it.
Justice was not served with that acquittal. It's fairly certain now that they fought each other and that Trayvon felt threatened by Zimmerman. His own account of what happened says that when he and Trayvon met up Trayvon asked him what his problem was and the girl who was on the phone with Trayvon said she heard as much herself.
Trayvon felt threatened by a man who was following him, confronted him, and the man reached immediately into his pocket. According to Zimmerman that was the point that Trayvon punched him in the nose.
We can't know what Trayvon was thinking that night but it is possible that Trayvon felt that the man who had been stalking him was reaching for a weapon. Zimmerman was so convinced that Trayvon was guilty and didn't think how his actions would look to an innocent person.
And so we wound up with a dead teenager. Zimmerman profiled Trayvon as a criminal and assumed his guilt by the way he looked. Trayvon profiled Zimmerman and assumed he was a pervert or somebody looking for trouble based on the way he looked and acted. In the end, profiling left a young man dead.
There have also been cries of Zimmerman's racism since this case first came to light. Ultimately, after examination of all the evidence there really hasn't been anything to suggest racial prejudice being the reason behind Zimmerman's actions, at least not anymore than most people have inherently coming from our broken society.
But there was racism at play here. Zimmerman was acquitted when there have been other cases, also in Florida, where a 69 year old man was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 years in prison in an incredibly similar situation. That man was black. There's a case where a woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing warning shots (not actually shooting to hit anybody or accidentally hitting anybody) to keep her husband, who had previously abused her, from doing it again. That woman was black.
The racism in the Zimmerman case isn't his racism, it's societies. We have institutionalized racism. Society has taught us that black people, males especially, are dangerous. When a black man kills a white man there's no reasonable doubt to be found that he didn't have to, even though the white man was 28 years younger, confronted him, and had served in the military. When a hispanic man kills a black teen there's reasonable doubt that he didn't have to. Maybe he really felt threatened enough to pull the trigger. Never mind how the teen felt in the situation.
Trayvon Martin looked like the kids that I see and work with every day. He had tattoos, wore a hoody, white tennis shoes, and baggy pants. And just like the kids that I see, he was judged for looking like that. He was judged as a criminal for wearing certain clothes. Clothes that people have decided means that you're a thug, or to put it more aptly, a punk and up to no good.
It's the same thing that people assume about the people in this inner city neighborhood in Albany, NY. If you dress like that, and come from here, you must be guilty. I've seen it in Albany, in Memphis, and I've seen it in Detroit. This is what causes people to fear coming to inner city neighborhoods. Everybody must be a criminal. We ignore the realities of crime, particularly violent crime in these neighborhoods. That the person committing the crime almost always knows the victim, that violent crime never really happens before 10 pm and most of it is after midnight. That you are just as safe outside our building at lunch time as you are in the expensive part of town. It's just the people dress differently and the music sounds different. But what is key to remember is that they are still people. And as people they have some of the same fears, insecurities, and dreams you have.
And that's something George Zimmerman never took into account. He saw somebody that he thought looked like a punk and a criminal and acted like they were guilty beyond a doubt. He took the way somebody looked and used it to dehumanize them so that he could forget that they might be afraid, or might think he looks suspicious, or might be innocent of any crime. Zimmerman never thought about this because he's human, broken, and selfish just like the rest of us. This is not to excuse him but we risk dehumanizing him just like he dehumanized Trayvon.
As a Christian community we need to respond to this tragedy. Not because Zimmerman was acquitted, but because Trayvon is dead. If Zimmerman had been convicted it would still require our action. Our action must be to first educate ourselves, and then educate others, on getting rid of the prejudices that we have. And that's difficult. Because prejudice isn't a conscious action. It stems from little things, usually societal, that shape us to see things a certain way. We act on prejudices all the time, sometimes positively, often negatively. You don't consciously recognize it, it's an automatic response. But we can learn to control it. Take breathing (congratulations, you are now aware of how you're breathing). When you think about it you can control it. You can stop it, slow it down, speed it up, shorten it, and lengthen it. Breathing is one of the easiest automatic responses we have to control. Controlling prejudice is much harder. It takes a lot of effort to remind yourself, over and over, that a certain article of clothing, or type of music, or yes, the color of somebody's skin, does not make them dangerous. It is a hugely difficult thing to do but the inability to control it is exactly what led to an innocent teenager being killed. Two different people with two different set of prejudices both assumed the worst about each other. They both assumed the guilt of the other. They both were unwilling to have any reasonable doubt that the other was innocent.
In the end it was other people's reasonable doubt that led to Zimmerman's acquittal.
Perhaps we can start with that. Start with reasonable doubt anytime we start to judge somebody without knowing a thing about them. Give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe, just maybe, they aren't out to get you, aren't a punk, aren't guilty.
Maybe if we can extend just that little bit of mercy, we can avoid another innocent persons death. We can avoid the violence that is very much not in God's plan. We can speak out against violence with acts of love and compassion. We can break violence with open hearts. We can begin heal ourselves through the hard effort it takes to get rid of our prejudices.
And maybe begin to heal the world.
Amen.
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