Lip service

Former NFL coach Tony Dungy has many accomplishments in his long career, including being the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. His words and faith at this troubling time in America should hold as much weight as his coaching success.

Here is Coach Dungy’s message:

As I have watched the events in Minneapolis unfold the last few days I have wondered & prayed about how I should respond. Below are my thoughts. I hope you read the whole thing because the final thought is most important. Romans 12:21

America is in a very sad place today. We have seen a man die senselessly, at the hands of the very people who are supposed to be protecting our citizens. We have seen people protest this death by destroying property and dreams of people in their own community, the very people they are protesting for. We have many people pointing fingers of blame, painting the opposite side with a broad brush. We have anger and bitterness winning out over logic and reason. We have distruct and prejudice winning out over love and respect.

What happened to George Floyd was inexcusable and it should never happen. Justice needs to be served, but in seeking justice we can’t fall into the trap of prejudging every police officer we see. What started out as peaceful protests have devolved into arson and looting and that should never happen, either. Yes there should be protest. But we do not have license to perform criminal acts because we’re angry.

Today we are a divided country. We’re divided racially, politically, and socio-economically. And Satan is laughing at us because that is exactly what he wants. Dysfunction, mistrust, and hatred help this kingdom flourish.

Well, what is the answer then? I believe it has to start with those of us who claim to be Christians. We have to come to the forefront and demonstrate the qualities of the One we claim to follow, Jesus Christ. We can’t be silent. As Dr. King said many years ago, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” But we can’t go forward with judgmental, bitter, spirits. We need to be proactive, but do it in the spirit of trying to help make things better. And it can’t be just the African American churches. It has to be ALL churches taking a stand and saying “We are going to be on the forefront of meaningful dialogue and meaningful change.” We have to be willing to speak the truth in love but we have to recognize that we are not fighting against other people. We are fighting against Satan and his kingdom of spiritual darkness.

In the words of the Apostle Paul, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Roman 12:21 NIV

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All well and good but what exactly would be meaningful dialogue/change? I reflect back to a seminar I went to where the speaker said if you want something to change you have to suggest an actual solution. Otherwise you're just complaining. I think most people will agree that what happened is terrible and no one, except perhaps white supremacy groups, thinks that it is okay. If a group sat around a table they would probably not disagree so the dialogue wouldn't really be meaningful unless an actual solution was proposed.

As far as change, how does an institution monitor the activity of every single member all of the time? Granted, the three officers standing around while this happened are equally culpable. I did read one article that said Derek Chauvin was the senior officer at the scene and the other three were comparatively new so following police mindset they wouldn't try to dissuade him, especially if he had been a training officer for any of them. I'm not sure if I buy that, especially since there were protesting onlookers. Common sense would dictate that his actions were completely out of line.

Unless you can beat humanity into everyone I'm afraid these situations are going to keep happening. At least the majority of people no longer are willing to accept it as okay, nor look the other way. Is that progress? The criminal justice system erred in not making immediate arrests but that has since been remedied. At this point are the continuing protests that in some instances have evolved into looting and rioting achieving anything positive? I think the dissenters have been heard and their point made.