On Statues, Sanity, and Racial Justice

First of all, it should go without saying that: 1) looting and destruction of property is not a Christian response to anything at all. It should be repudiated always; 2) It is time for statues of Confederate soldiers and leaders to be put where they belong, in history museums. They should not be in public squares, in front of public buildings as supposed positive examples of our Southern heritage. They should also not be destroyed. ‘Cancel culture’ is not a proper Christian response to anything. And the Confederate flag should not be flying in any public place anywhere in ‘the United States of America’. The attempt by the South to secede from the union is only one of the negative things this flag stands for. To the descendants of slaves it obviously stands for slavery, not merely states rights. The flag also belongs in a history museum. The attempt to erase the offending past will not work, and it may indeed have the opposite effect– people will forget this history, and that can be an open door to repeat such racism. We have to learn from our imperfect past, or we may repeat it, however repugnant we may find parts of that past. 3) Black Lives do indeed matter, as do native American lives, Asian American lives, and in fact all lives. The problem is, all lives are not equally valued in our society, not given equal opportunities to thrive, not equally respected by some police and some public figures. There is no question but there is a problem in many places with the way minorities are policed, and too often it escalates to unnecessary police violence against usually unarmed persons. Clearly various sorts of reforms are needed, but what is not needed is the complete disbanding of police or the complete defunding of police. 4) the right to peacefully assemble or march against various sorts of societal injustices needs to be affirmed. There are still many, many lessons to be learned from the non-violent civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King. Violence only begets more violence, and is not a Christian response to anything. Period.