June 8th, 2020: Racism Has Many Faces
The temperature yesterday morning was 3°C (about 37.4°F) when we
woke up. It was frosty and rainy so my plan for a bike ride was
postponed. Sunday morning is not the same these days because most
churches now are having their Sunday morning service on line. Most of my
pastoral work now is on Zoom and in smaller groups during the week.
Now
that does bring the question that I would like to ask our political
leaders. Why religious bodies are not allowed to have more than 50
people inside their facilities and protesters are allowed to gather in
the thousands? Even our Prime Minister ignored the physical distancing
rule when decided to join the protesters. Most of the health chief
officers of different provinces and even of Canada appeared to be
backpedalling when it comes to public protests.
Leslyn
Lewis, a candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative
Party in Canada, wrote: "Either their recommendations and guidelines
were heavy-handed and unnecessary, OR they were so eager to gain the
approval of a large electoral block of voters, many of whom are people
of colour, that they were dishonest with them about the health risks of
the protests and demonstrations."
We are not
supposed to sing in church now but it is ok for protesters to shout. It
is not cool to take a knee in prayer in church and yet it is applauded
to take a knee for justice in public while the group is larger than 50
people. I am not advocating large public meetings at this time. What is
happening lately is a subtle practice of injustice in itself by telling
some people that you are not allowed to gather while it is cool for
others to do so because of their convictions and faith. Many churches I
know are racially diverse. The worship band of one of them has consisted
of members from more than 15 nations. There are black, white, brown,
first nations, and many others. We take a knee because it is how we
worship and by doing so we acknowledge that we all belong to the
household of God.
Let us look beyond what is
popular. Racism has to be eradicated and that starts with the
transformation of one's heart. Racism will never disappear if we
continue to tolerate hypocrisy. Racism will never go away if politicians
continue to take advantage of this time to get votes. Racism is not
going to end if we continue to tolerate poverty.
George
Floyd's death doesn't change the nature of the virus we are dealing
with. So what changed? Let us not replace one form of discrimination
with another. Where is the voice that cries out for the protection of
our front line healthcare workers who now might have to face another
wave of infection? We are not even through the first wave safely yet.
(James 3:17)
