Some Thoughts and a Prayer for #Charlottesville

Racism: on display today in Charlottesville.

Nineteen people were injured and one was killed this afternoon when a car slammed into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacy rally.

A white supremacy rally.

It is unbelievable that I'm actually typing those words.

Evidently the rally came together as a protest over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.

More than a typical protest, however, this was a gathering of KKK members and white nationalists who chanted "You will not replace us," "Blood and soil" (a Nazi slogan), and "White lives matter." They carried torches as they marched last night a la KKK gatherings.

Let's be clear: Christians should condemn this. All Christians should condemn this. It is abhorrent, and goes against God's desires for humanity. God told Abraham in Genesis 12 that through Abraham's descendants, all people of the earth would be blessed. Jesus calls his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28). Paul says that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, because all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3). God loved all people, including foreigners in early Old Testament times, and called his people to do the same (Lev. 19, Num. 9, Deut. 10, many others).

All forms of racism and white supremacy are not of God. Neo-Nazism, KKK association, white nationalism, none of these are of God.

My heart grieves today for the dead and injured and their families. I am saddened by what I see on the news today. I am shocked that these white supremacists have become bold enough to walk the streets without hoods.

I thought I would have more words today.

I don't.

All I have is a prayer.  A prayer that the God who overcomes evil will continue to overcome the evil of racism that we see alive and well in our world.  A prayer that the gospel will win over the evils of prejudice, xenophobia, and discrimination.  A prayer that whenever racism is encountered, God's people (including myself) will speak out against it as the evil that it is.

Kyrie Eleison
Lord, have mercy.