Yesterday was Palm Sunday for the Christian world and here in Chicago a local church decided to march through the Austin neighborhood in a protest to gun violence. Here is a quote from the news article in the Chicago Tribune online: “On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus walked through the streets of Jerusalem. Why not emulate the founder of our church and walk through the streets of Chicago today?" said the Rev. Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church on the city's West Side.” The problem with this is that the church people had a police escort with them and I seriously doubt that Jesus had any protection from the Roman Empire at that time…unless my Bible is different from theirs. Not only was the police escorting them through a “tough” neighborhood but on the front line of the march was a group of politicians and one of them actively seeking office. How would have Jesus looked if He would have rode into Jerusalem with a Roman Legion and riding next to him Pontius Pilate himself? Where would the Christian world be today?
I don’t mean to bash the march that was held but I do mean to make a point that as a person of Faith I would never need a police escort through my own neighborhood especially if I was a minister in that same community. They marched because they wanted to protest gun violence and the message quickly turned into gangs and drugs. The shooter in Trayvon’s case, as far as we know, was not a gang member shooting Trayvon over drugs. The miss of their message is that somehow the reason for the violence is the guns…are guns grown in some “illegal” way as is Marijuana? Do gang members have a secret lab somewhere in their hide out where they are growing these guns and a byproduct of that are bullets? They marched in the wrong neighborhood with the wrong people escorting them because if they would have shown up at a gun shop those same police would have escorting them the hell out of there!
The shooting of Trayvon has nothing to do with guns, bullets, gangs, or drugs but it has everything to do with how America sees itself. We see ourselves as an entitled people that should have access to everything and whenever we want. We see ourselves as the best of the best right or wrong we are who you should want to be. With those ideals things like violence, greed, racism, and hate rule because you can’t think you’re the best and not hate someone that thinks you’re not. The actions of the shooter in Trayvon’s case were one of an ignorant man that thought he was someone he isn’t and that’s the key. If the shooter was an actual police officer we wouldn’t be talking this much about Trayvon. Simply because the officer would have by now said that when he ordered Trayvon to turn around he saw something in his hand and shot him. Trayvon wouldn’t be on our minds right now because we would have said ‘that’s another little brother gone for no reason…it’s tough out there’ then as the “pictures” came out people would have felt justified for not caring too much. If you think I’m making this up then you haven’t been paying attention, with all due respect.
The church that marched should have talked about the unconditional love that Jesus expressed in His talks and how the need to be like Jesus would help the Christian world be a better place. In the church they may not use guns on each other, as of right now, but when they condemn someone to hell because they love someone of the same sex they might as well have used not only a gun but a full vest with C-4 attached to it doused in gasoline while walking through a car-wash that had its tassels changed into razor blades and the water into more gasoline…did I make a point? When the church hates it really hates! So before we go marching through a street trying to get close to an image of a Holy man like Jesus, just know that His message of love was not bias and that’s why He didn’t need a police escort or a politician to make a point.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
No comments:
Post a Comment