Sin in America

There is no doubt that the recent events in America surrounding the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police brutality, and the subsequent peaceful protests and destructive riots have again exposed a deep divide in America. My aim is to address this from a biblical perspective, and Lord willing to offer the only biblical solution. To do this, we need to diagnose the problem Biblically rather than culturally.

The sin we are seeing in our country at its root is not racism, not brutality, not a suppression of free speech. The sin in our country is the sin of partiality. Some police show partiality to white citizens and afford them a common courtesy that they do not afford to black citizens. Some police show partiality to black citizens in a harmful way, seeing the majority of black citizens as dangerous and less valuable, and therefore they feel justified in racial profiling. Protests against police brutality is a good thing, but protesting the police is not. Saying all police are corrupt is to commit the same sin, the sin of partiality, that some police do when they target black citizens and let white citizens go free for committing the same crimes. Free speech is a good thing, a human right that ought to be protected. But news and media outlets are committing the sin of partiality by cropping news clips and presenting some data, but nowhere near all the data, and doing so in such a way that promotes their political agenda and serves their ideological bias. Rather than being wholly committed to the truth, they are being partial to their political party’s agenda, and this is on both sides, Republican (here’s to you Fox News) and Democrat (here’s to you almost everyone else). These sins of partiality only breed more partiality. What we need is not the wisdom from below that is partial and biased, but rather we need the wisdom from above which is impartial and sincere, full of mercy and good fruits, producing a harvest of righteousness.

“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” – James 3:13-18 (ESV)

The only way to obtain that harvest of righteousness and the peace we all desperately long for is by a transfer of allegiance. Not a revolt against the American Flag which we all pledged allegiance to in Kindergarten, but by a full and complete allegiance to Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of God and who has never once committed the sin of partiality. The Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The sin of partiality, which is being expressed in our day by some police murdering some black people for petty crimes that deserve no more than a slap on the wrist; the sin of partiality, which is being expressed in our day by some protestors saying all cops are evil, all the while being protected by police from extremist rioters who do deserve more than a slap on the wrist; the sin of partiality, which is being expressed in our day by news and media outlets only covering that half of the story that makes their political party look good; the sin of partiality, which has made some governing authorities shirk their primary responsibility to be terrors to bad conduct have rather become a terror to good conduct as they bear God’s sword in vain by neglecting their role to distribute God’s wrath on the wrongdoer all for the sake of saving face and not wanting to be seen as opposed to a righteous cause; that sin of partiality will never depart from our nation until it departs from our hearts, and the only way that can happen is by a full and complete allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus, the one who makes all people in His image, the one who died to propitiate all kinds of people from their sins, including their sins of partiality; Jesus, the only one who can change the heart. I say, as America bows the knee in protest of George Floyd’s murder, let us do so by bowing the knee in full allegiance to Jesus, confessing Him as Lord. 

What would this look like? For one, it would look like confession and repentance. It would look like owning personal sins of partiality and confessing them to the Lord and to those that we have personally sinned against. We ought not to confess the sins that others have committed, for that is to blame-shift rather than own the the sins we have committed. Two, it would look like admitting that the sin of partiality has negatively affected some groups of people more than others. Three, it would look like media outlets being wholly committed to Jesus, who is the Truth, and prove that allegiance by presenting all the known facts in an unbiased manner without an aim to win an agenda that is opposed to Christ. Fourth, it would look like seeing all people as divine image-bearers of infinite worth and value. Fifth, it would look like seeing uniqueness in the different groups of people in our nation, and still upholding that those uniquenesses are not better or worse than another group’s uniqueness. Sixth, it would look like governing laws and policies, and the carrying out of those laws and policies, whose design have justice and righteousness as their goal. In a word, it would look like the kingdom of God on earth. Come, Lord Jesus.