overcome evil with good

This is a reflection of thoughts that have come up about the Zimmerman trial and what God might think about it, and me, and us.

I responded to George Zimmerman's acquittal last night with an initial outburst and then a confused flurry of emotions -- unsettled dissatisfaction, grief, and frustration -- not aimed at Zimmerman, not aimed at the six women on the jury, but at something greater about all of this that is just so wrong, so distorted from what should be.

As a Korean-American woman, I can only possibly share so much of the full experience of the Black community around me. I can stand in solidarity with those who are mourning the loss of justice for Trayvon, but I will never fully understand the experience of a young Black man living in an urban neighborhood. Freedom surely hasn't come to our country as long as human trafficking industries thrive, undocumented immigrants live and work in fear of deportation (glad for S. 744), and young men who are whimsically perceived as criminals by neighborhood watch leaders can end up killed.

The last thing I want to do is polarize myself and my stance on what happened to Trayvon Martin and what didn't happen to George Zimmerman, because I believe that we as a society have tacitly and maybe obliviously internalized the stratification of worth among Black, Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, White people, and every other social grouping we have conceived according race. I'll be the first to confess that I have racially profiled Black men. I've caught myself feeling more uncomfortable walking down the street past a young Black man than when walking by a White man. I don't intend to believe that the Black man has more of a reason to harm me; I want so badly to purge this almost instinctive response from myself. Not by coincidence, yesterday I read,

"If you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth -- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you not steal? ... You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"  -- Romans 2:18-23 

It's in me, and I grieve it.

I think that when there is a social wrong or injustice, we all look to point the finger at something or someone. It's easier that way, to mentally and morally compartmentalize good and evil in our world of complex beauty and brokenness. It especially makes sense to demand justice when interest groups agree to antagonize White supremacists for race-based discrimination, or money-hungry corporations for unfair wages, or bloodthirsty pimps for the plight of underaged girls selling their souls and their bodies to johns who care nothing about them.

But before we talk about anything else, we need to own up to our own imperfect perceptions of people. While the public eye strains to villainize the slightest tint of racism in people, we'd be foolishly holding some huge logs in our eyes if we manipulated the racist villains we see in the media to elevate and justify our own perceptions. We all are or have once been colorblind racists. We need to talk about difficult issues with a pure ambition to resolve these broken parts of our society, and ditch the ambition to be correct. Antagonizing the other will not bring forth complete justice or restoration. Romans 21:21 exhorts us,

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

If God is truly a God of justice, he will have justice, and there will be a time and place for his wrath.

Let's be mindful, though, that to depend on God's wrath for justice's sake is a dangerous thing, because you and I George Zimmerman. I'm as messed up and broken and just as capable of horrible things as the next guy. If God's wrath is just, you and I deserve justice. But justice was served as God the Father took his own Son to the Cross. If I can sit here fuming over the injustice that is George Zimmerman's acquittal, what then shall I say about my own acquittal, and the "injustice" that took a blameless Christ to the place of divine wrath?

God had justice because he is just. His version of justice, however, is infuriating, scandalous, and wonderful. What it was about me that he would love me to save me from my life sentence, I'll spend the rest of my days marveling over. Praise the Lord.

In The New Evangelicalism, Soong-Chan Rah describes the way the American Church's Western individualized "soteriology" (perspective on salvation) limits our ability to identify with our greater structural brokenness:

Evangelicalism's idolatry of the individual has crippled the church's ability to view sin and salvation outside of the narrow parameters of a personal faith. ... In an individual-driven theology ... individual sin leads to a sense of personal guilt: I, the individual, did something personally wrong and I feel guilty about my actions. Therefore, I can personally confess my sins and be absolved of my individual sinfulness and my personal feelings of guilt. ... Our excessive emphasis on individualism keeps us from dealing with the implication of corporate sin -- it exonerates us from addressing corporate sin that may be evident in our social and political engagement.

I share this not to point the finger at the Western Church, but to encourage us to press into Biblical a response to mess in our world, especially in this country we live in. Today as I was thinking, listening, and praying, I was reminded of how Nehemiah reacted to the destruction of the wall of Jerusalem:

"When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: 'LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you.'" -- Nehemiah 1:4-7

Who does that? Nehemiah humbly considers the sins of the people around him as his very own. He mourns genuinely and seeks forgiveness genuinely. He owns his people's identity, their actions, and their fate. What would our society look like if the Western Church owned up to its own imperfections and took ownership of the condition of the American people? What if we looked at injustice and wept over it in repentance as if we were personally at fault? As Christ took up the weight of our sin, I pray that the Spirit would change me from within to own and love this place and its people as I do myself.

I can achieve none of this because I resolve to with the strength of my will. If the American Church has any good reason to exist, I believe this is one reason -- to look at the most messed up of situations around it and then lower itself beneath it, to become poor in spirit, to pray for restoration with humble and repentant hearts, to love the poor and the widowed (and the orphaned and fostered and foreign and trafficked) with real hands that touch and relationships that commit and money given cheerfully.

Whether you're in the faith or not, what we can do is to re-evaluate our core ambitions. Let's recognize our own imperfections and give grace to one another. Let's admit that it feels oddly validating to be "right," and that being right might give us a greater reason for us to speak out than does the cause of restorative justice. Let's push for true communal reconciliation and overcome evil with good.

Send revival, and start with me, Lord.