A PERSON YELLS LOUDER WHEN THEY AREN’T HEARD
Thinking about the people who are understandably angry about the historical and present unjust police killings of Black Americans, and are showing it in the streets, I asked Shane, “How can white Christians participate in restorative justice and begin to heal the wounds they’ve created, even if they’re afraid?”
Shane replied after a longer-than-usual pause. “I think white people like me would do well to listen to people of color. I mean really listen. We’ve got to listen right now to our [siblings] who are asking us, ‘Do our lives matter to you?’”
He added, “With the three-fifths human rule and the Dred Scott Case, we keep saying that Black people don’t have rights and white people have to acknowledge we’ve done that. We can’t get our future right if we can’t get our history right. The question I think white Christians should ask themselves is, ‘What are we not hearing?’”
“I’ve heard it said that a person yells louder when they aren’t heard,” I said.
“That’s right,” he nodded. “I also think white people can purposefully create environments where they are the minority.”
Then he mentioned other people of color whose work inspires him. People like Reverend Dr. Barber in North Carolina who is the president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, recently addressed the nation in the midst of police killings and protests. Leslie Callahan was another inspiration Shane cited who has recently written on Philly as a hub of religious innovation and seeing Blackness as the gift and promise of Philadelphia. Alexia Salvatierra – has written about Faith Rooted Organizing. He seemed to be inspired by so many on the-ground innovators and leaders. Both his eyes were wide open, looking for the kingdom of God to happen around him through the people around him and for the people around him.
In Executing Grace, Shane reminds readers that the old “eye for an eye” way of justice originally came from a way to limit the violence returned to wrongdoers. He writes that it really should be remembered as “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… and no more.” For Shane, observing Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and vision for restoration in the world shows us the evil of using killing to try to bring real justice and the wholeness of shalom to the world. Gandhi, also inspired by the life of Jesus, declared “An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.” In the scriptures Jesus reminds us that if a blind man leads a blind man they will both fall into a pit.
“Limiting violence was a good place to start,” writes Shane, and abolishing it—especially in the death penalty, and systematic use of police force—“is a good place to end.”
If anyone were to look in on my conversation with Shane from the outside, they might have only seen a spotty digital rendezvous between a white Christian activist with a southern drawl and a Filipino/Japanese immigrant in the middle of his lunch break. But if they stuck around and paid attention, they would notice the static clear. They would see two different humans on opposite sides of the country come together in solidarity. You might notice a small vision of a unified world in the middle of a parking lot. It is the Central figure of the Christian faith, Christ himself who has centralized the marginalized person, Christ who flips tables at their exploitation by the the dominant religion, and Christ who says “No one can serve two masters; a worker will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
It is necessary to note that though the seeds of a life giving form of justice have been planted, but in order to grow tangible fruit the vision must be watered, and cultivated not only by the ideas of our imaginations, or by the words of our prayers, but also by the work of our own hands. It is also Christ who has said that in the same talk on the hilltop that anyone who hears his words and was does them will be like the wise builder founding a house on solid rock. But anyone who hears these words and does not do them is like a fool––building their house on the sand. These are sobering words, but I am hopeful that there are followers of Jesus like Shane who —like we mentioned at the start—are committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.”
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