This was not necessarily the kick-off to my official blog as the pastor of Grace Church that I had envisioned. No doubt if you're reading this, you've been following the news out of Baltimore, Maryland for the past several days. For those who haven't, here's the thumbnail sketch of events; if you feel up on the facts, skip a bit.
*************
On April 12th, Baltimore police arrested and took into custody a 25-year old African American man, Freddie Gray, presumably under the suspicion that he was involved in a drug-related incident and for fleeing from the police. He was in possession of a switchblade at the time; he was tackled by the police during the arrest. Eyewitnesses took video footage of Gray being dragged into a police van; other witnesses report Gray being beaten with police batons and Gray being "folded" (legs bent backwards, held down by pressure at the neck), though this has not yet been officially corroborated. The police officers involve have stated that Gray was arrested "without force or incident." Within 30 minutes of the arrest, Gray was being rushed by paramedics to the hospital and was in a coma within an hour. He died on April 19th; according to the Gray family, his spine was "80% severed" at his neck, there were three fractured vertebrae, and he had a larynx injury. This has not officially been corroborated, but seems plausible.
In the days since his death, there have been protests through Baltimore against what is widely being perceived as another example of excessive use of police force against an African American man. The Baltimore Police Department has suspended six officers involved with Gray's arrest for not seeking appropriate medical care for Gray in a timely manner. Tensions, which were already high, began to rise after the head of the Baltimore lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police compared protesters to a "lynch mob;" given the racialized history of lynching, it's not hard to see how a white man accusing mostly African American protesters of this would have struck a nerve.
On April 25th, protests turned violent as what appears to be only a very small number of the total protesters began throwing rocks at police and lighting fires. After Gray's funeral yesterday, violence resumed with reports of looting, attacks on police, and the burning of police vehicles.
**************
There is a lot of heartbreak to be had over this. First, Freddie Gray's death is truly tragic - a man five years younger than me is dead, and it is because of his encounter with the police, as there doesn't appear to be any evidence suggesting that he had a prior health condition that would have contributed to his death. Gray may very well have been guilty of a crime and merited arrest under the law as it stands, but it is a tragedy, and more than a tragedy - an injustice - when anybody dies in such a way.
Second, Baltimore - a city that I love and have spent a fair amount of time exploring - is wracked with violence and discord...and was marked by violence and discord long before Freddie Gray died. While certainly sensationalized and guilty of some pretty negative stereotyping, the HBO series "The Wire" does unfortunately point to the very ugly realities of crime, violence, racism, and corruption that are a part of daily life in the city of Baltimore. The current violence is only an angrier, more politically and racially charged expression of what's long been brewing below the surface as Baltimore's sizable African American population has felt harassed and threatened by the police force, and as the police force, city government, and more well-heeled portions of the city have looked with fear and dread at the state of decaying neighborhoods in the city. Mix in with this a generous dose of economic inequality and vast differences in city services between poor neighborhoods and wealthy neighborhoods, and you a recipe for deep-seated anger and resentment.
Third, the bigger dialogue over what's happening in Baltimore doesn't feel so much like dialogue as screaming and yelling over to what extent the violence seen over the past few days is or is not justified or, if not justifiable, at least understandable. This has brought out the best in some people (the Baltimore residents who are out in the streets, cleaning up broken glass and helping neighbors repair windows and other damaged property; clergy literally standing in prayer in the midst of tense situations to create buffers), and the worst in others (people taking advantage of chaos to loot and vandalize; people using the violence as an excuse to post racist propaganda all over social media). The media coverage isn't helping; cable news networks prefer to pay attention to the most sensational things goings on, so we see clip after clip of windows being shattered and cars being lit on fire, but very little footage of the vast majority of peaceful protestors, or of people working to protect their neighbors and help them rebuild.
I was up late last night, troubled by it all, praying for justice and for peace and confessing that I am probably not the best person to determine what either of those things should look like here. I've been wondering - what does grace have to do with the streets of Baltimore? This gift of God, this concept of who Christ is and what Christ is all about that's the beating heart of our faith as Christians - how does it intersect with what's being seen on the news?
Where do grace and justice meet? It's not a new question, but I think the best answer is - the cross. It's in the cross that we see Christ, God in the flesh, experiencing the fullness of human sin, violence, and injustice. We encounter God's Son suffering, in agony - an innocent man tortured and killed for crimes he didn't commit after a sham trial. We see, in the cross, that Christ is no longer a stranger to the worst tendencies of humanity, but instead knows them with an intimacy that few of us can claim. In the cross, Christ shows our human sense of "justice" for what it is - a sham, a cloak to cover up our own sin and prejudice. We see brokenness, and Christ's presence in it, and Christ's solidarity with the broken, when we look at the cross.
But, we see more than that. We see a Christ on the cross who looks at the ones who are murdering him - a 1st century lynch mob - and asks God to "forgive them for they know not what they do." We see a Christ who cannot be kept down by injustice, suffering, and death, who rises triumphant from the grave and crushes sin and death beneath him. We see our own hope of life and salvation beyond the injustice, suffering, and tears. Grace shows up, even in the midst of shame, violence, and injustice.
I don't have an answer for Baltimore, nor is it my place to give one. I fear that all my attempts at rationalizing, defending, and passing judgment would simply result in me "mansplaining" (look it up) the complex intersection of racism, poverty, criminal justice, media coverage, and public policy and doing no justice to anyone or anything involved. What I can do, though, is pray - that God's justice might reign, that the peace which passes all understanding be made manifest, and that Christ raise up a generation charged with the ministry of reconciliation to lead Christ's Church into deeper engagement with each other and the world so that grace might abound.
