Be Angry about Injustice in the World...and Sin Not

I’ve been privileged to conduct classes for the Air Force on “Bystander Intervention.” The basic premise of the training is to prepare to intervene in bad situations in whichever way you are most likely to intervene if you actually see a bad situation happening. These situations range from sexual assault to domestic violence to child abuse to suicidal ideations. It’s not a Christian training, per se, but it is one of the only workplace violence trainings that is quantifiable in its results, decreasing workplace violence by 17% on average in the first year.

I appreciate this training because it is taking an active role in people’s lives to train them to be courageous and to be peacemakers in their world. Because of this training the tragic death of George Floyd makes me all the more angry.

The Untimely Death of a Human Being

All of the facts have not come out yet, so I cannot and will not speak on the toxicology or resisting of arrest allegations. I suspect more to this story will come about in future days from body-cameras and the autopsy. However, the life of George Floyd was not valued by the police officers at the scene, and this should make all of us angry. Putting pressure on someone’s neck for a prolonged amount of time is never acceptable outside of them trying to kill you. We’ve heard from several police officers that this violated safety training that all police officers should have received. In the military we speak of proportionality of using the right amount of force to accomplish the objective. The reason that this is such an important concept is because we don’t want to cause undue damage or suffering, and we certainly don’t want to kill someone we weren’t intending to kill.

When we see blatant safety violations and excessive force being used on a person who is made in the image of God we should be angry. We should be more angry in this case that George Floyd lost his life. Floyd’s pastor (whom I’ll address more farther on), said it well, “Even if he was a capital criminal he deserved to be treated as someone created in his image.”

The Bystanders are Culpable in their Cowardice

What makes me nearly as angry as the death of George Floyd is the video of his death, the pictures of the person holding the camera, and the uninvolved police officer standing nonchalantly listening to a man be assaulted. This will be what I think about in the future when I think about spinelessness.

This has long been called the “bystander effect” by secular psychology. The Bible calls it cowardice. Cell phones and portable cameras are purportedly making it worse, as holding the phone makes it feel like you’re doing something. 

Further Reading: People Are Filming Accidents Instead of Helping

But just because everyone is sinning by not helping doesn’t mean you are innocent of the blood that was shed. In the long list of sinners in Revelation 21:8 that will be thrown into Hell, cowards are at the top of the list. I am further and further convinced that this is on purpose, there is not a sin on earth that can’t be made worse by bystanders refusing to speak up for the truth or intervene.

All that the standing police officer had to do was tap his buddy and say something, anything, maybe, “He’s done resisting, let’s get him up.” or, “Hey, don’t forget to keep your knee on his shoulder.” Or, “Hey, let me tap you out.” Or the camera-coward could have said, “He’s not breathing, can you let him get a breath?” Or to save a life would you physically remove someone from an asphyxia situation?

The False Gospel Preached to George Floyd

While a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, a false gospel murdered his soul. Members of his “church” in Houston have testified to how faithful Floyd was in attendance, but a brief search of their doctrine shows them to elevate social justice far above salvation. Their gospel is no gospel and their peace is no peace.

Do you hate the police officers and bystanders who contributed to Floyd’s death? As awful as their sin was, it could only kill Floyd’s body, but could do nothing to his soul. But when Floyd met the judge of the universe he faced a Saviour spurned, and Floyd’s hope – if congruent with his pastor – was in social justice and self-worth, not in the blood of Jesus Christ nor the justification of his resurrection.

Get Angry

Dear Reader, there is sin in this world and it is going from bad to worse: people hate and hurt people. This is one reason that Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” We worship a God who takes peace and justice so seriously as to make peace by the blood of the cross.

So I am calling you to hate sin, and rage against it, not with worldly weapons, but with the love and forgiveness and peace of the blood of Christ. Love your enemies by taking the gospel of reconciliation with God to them. Declare his hope to a lost and dying world. Who do you hate the most? Might I suggest that there is your missions field?

Then, act as a righteous bystander who opens your mouth for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy (Prov 31:8-9). A friend of mine pulled into a gas station a few years ago to see the unthinkable, a man was on fire in the parking lot! My friend ran into the store to ask for their fire extinguisher but was told the fire department had been called and that he could not take the fire extinguisher. My friend was able to extinguish the flames with a rubber mat, but it was far too late, and he laid on the ground and prayed with the man as he died. The gas station had a fire extinguisher to satisfy legal code, not to extinguish fires. I’m calling you today to make the determination in your heart that you will be prepared, that you will act when action is due, that you will be a bystander who intervenes, not a coward who watches or films or walks by. That you will, to the best of your ability, use your life to extinguish the hatred and violence in the world.

And finally, loved ones, I’m calling you to love the gospel and hate imitations. Proclaim to the world forgiveness of sin in Christ’s sacrifice. Declare the only hope of Heaven found in the Prince of Peace. Stand firm in loving your enemies as Christ loved his enemies and died to give them a seat at his table and transform their lives from hatred to peacemaking so that they may be called sons of God.

Anything less is the murder of souls, and God will not hold those that love sin, preach falsehood, spread division, or watch injustice without acting, faultless on judgment day.