As Monday’s march on Wydown approached The Church of St. Michael & St. George, we were prepared to show our support. We had signs and water bottles in our hands, and we spread out to make room for the throngs of protesters as they briefly flooded the two-way street and the grass-covered median.
As they drew near, I wasn’t prepared for what would happen next. A young man at the front of the crowd approached me, and I assumed that he wanted a water bottle. Instead, he stopped right in front of me, folded his arms and bowed his head, and asked, “Father, may I receive a blessing?” I awkwardly cradled four water bottles in my left arm as I extended my right hand and blessed this stranger in the name of the triune God. He thanked me and rejoined the crowd.
I couldn’t help but notice the stark contrast between this interaction and the public perception of protesters as ‘thugs’ and belligerents. Unfortunately, the only way to learn that
protests aren't what they look like on TV
is to witness them firsthand. And that’s exactly what we did at CSMSG. Except we didn’t merely observe — we showed our support and solidarity with our black brothers and sisters who are seeking equality and speaking out against injustice. As Fr. Peter reminded us earlier this week, even though our building is closed, “We are still busy about the kingdom that Christ has secured and charged us to build.”
Our church building happened to be on the path of the march, and we could have simply stayed home or remained neutral. Like many retail stores around St. Louis, we could have boarded up our windows as a precaution in case the march became violent. Instead, as followers of Christ, we sent a clear message that the God we worship loves every human being and does not overlook the plight of the oppressed.
While it grieves me to think that there is even a need for these marches and protests in the first place, I have been encouraged by the fact that people’s hearts are changing. In the
words of contemporary jazz musician Kamasi Washington
, “For the first time, it feels as though people of all races from all over the world have seen the light and are demanding an end to this evil.”
And that’s just the thing: Every Christian I know acknowledges that racism is a sin. But we as the people of God have been too quiet, because we haven’t been listening the actual stories of racism — both explicit and implicit — in our society. Even when we agree that racism is a problem, we disagree on the appropriate methods for combatting it. In the eyes of the world, it appears that the Church either doesn’t care about racism or has little to say about it.
Yet we’re beginning to see Christians engage this issue with greater intensity, and that gives me hope. What we need right now is courage. As Fr. Bryan Massingale recently explained in an
interview with
Commonweal
,
“Another way of putting it is that moral courage is what translates conviction into action. To put this into the conversation we’re having today: there are a lot of good white people who know what the right thing to do is. But they don’t do it because they’re afraid of the disapproval of their friends or family, or they’re afraid of the consequences of speaking up and speaking out, being in solidarity and being an ally. Courage is what enables conviction to be translated into action. It isn’t that people don’t have the conviction, but they don’t have the courage to act on those convictions. So this is the reason why we need courage, especially in the pursuit of racial justice.”
We can’t be afraid of engaging difficult issues like racism simply because they’re difficult. We can’t let our friends’ disapproval, or the possibility of others mistaking our political identity, stop us from speaking out against injustice. The way of the cross (Mt. 16:24-26) to which Christ calls us is not supposed to be easy, and it requires allegiance that transcends even our friends and family (Lk. 14:26).
Racism lies deep in the human heart and in the structures of our society, and it won’t be conquered by human effort alone. But I’m grateful that God is working in us, The Church of St. Michael & St. George, to proclaim the life-giving and liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
Fr. Stewart
