Everything Is Going Down. but The Word Of God……It is a poor testimony when church comes down to race, but racism is so deeply rooted in the fabric of America it impacts every aspect of our lives. Recently Pastor Michael Bledsoe penned an open letter to so-called White Christians in Florida. The Lord for God should overshadow race, but it does not if we are honest. One of the most segregated places is our churches on Sunday mornings. To this day the majority of people live and worship with people that look like them, which contributes greatly to the problem.
A Baptist pastor from Washington has penned an open letter to “White Christians of Florida,” condemning them for not standing united against that state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
Pastor Michael Bledsoe of the Riverside Baptist Church in Washington D.C. posted the letter on the church’s website Sunday, following a verdict in the trial of Michael Dunn, the man accused of shooting into a car full of teenagers at a Jacksonville, Fla., convenience store following an argument over loud music.
Dunn killed one teen, Jordan Davis, and injured four others as he shot into the car 10 times. Dunn was found guilty Saturday on charges of attempted murder for shooting the teens, but a jury could not reach a verdict on the charge of murdering Davis.
In his letter, Bledsoe references the shootings of Jordan and of Trayvon Martin. Martin, 17, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., in 2012.
Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder in July.
Bledsoe urges Christians in Florida to repeal the so-called “stand your ground” law that says a person is “justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if: He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.”
Twenty-four states have some version of the law on the books, including Alabama and Mississippi.
Neither Dunn nor Zimmerman invoked Florida’s version of “stand your ground” in their defenses. Both relied instead on a basic self-defense argument in their trials.
However, the judges in both cases instructed jurors they should acquit if they found the defendant had no duty to retreat and had the right to “stand his ground.”
According to an Associated Press story, the instruction is part of a list of standard instructions given jurors in Florida in cases where the defendant claims self-defense.
In Bledsoe’s letter, he argues that the very existence of the law has “incentivized” killing in the state.
“Far be it that I, a white clergyman who is not a lawyer, instruct you as to the illogical nature of your “stand your ground” license to kill but let us note something that is apparent now after two cases where your predominantly white juries could not agree to convict a man who admitted he killed an unarmed teen-ager: if you convict a person for attempting to murder ten teens but fail to convict the killer for actually killing a teen, then you have incentivized killing … .
He goes on to write:
“The stench from your houses of worship is wafting its way across this country, polluting citizenship, demoralizing parents and families, mocking accountability and blaspheming the Holy God whom you say you love and worship. If that offends you, try reading Amos.
” … You know as well as anyone that teen-agers should not be killed for playing loud music. But then, we all know don’t we, that Jordan Davis was not killed for playing loud music. He was killed for being an uppity black kid who dared to smart off to a drunken white man with a concealed weapon’s permit.”
The letter calls on Christians to rescind “stand your ground” for “the blasphemous sham it is.”
Read the entire letter below:
An Open Letter from Pastor Michael Bledsoe, Riverside Baptist Church Washington DC
February 16.2014
Dear White Christians of Florida:
Far be it that I, a white clergyman who is not a lawyer, instruct you as to the illogical nature of your “stand your ground” license to kill but let us note something that is apparent now after two cases where your predominantly white juries could not agree to convict a man who admitted he killed an unarmed teen-ager: if you convict a person for attempting to murder ten teens but fail to convict the killer for actually killing a teen, then you have incentivized killing since, not only on the face of it but in actuality, you have told the person we will not convict you for killing a black, unarmed teen-ager but we will imprison you for attempting it.
The stench from your houses of worship is wafting its way across this country, polluting citizenship, demoralizing parents and families, mocking accountability and blaspheming the Holy God whom you say you love and worship. If that offends you, try reading Amos.
Here is my premise and I dare you to prove me wrong: if white Christians in Florida stood up and cried out for justice, demanding an end to the license-to-kill-stand-your-ground law, it would be rescinded immediately. Where is your conscience? Where is the little light you promised to shine for Christ? You have put it beneath a bushel and suffocated it. You know as well as anyone that teen-agers should not be killed for playing loud music. But then, we all know don’t we, that Jordan Davis was not killed for playing loud music. He was killed for being an uppity black kid who dared to smart off to a drunken white man with a concealed weapon’s permit. Speak up, for Christ’s sake, for the sake of your conscience and because you know in your heart of hearts that had a black man killed your white son playing music in a car with friends, you probably would not have to be demanding he be tried because a mob of white folks would have administered mob justice. Shame. Shame. Shame!
White Christians of Florida, speak up for justice. Stand up and demand that this license for murder be removed from your books, from your lives. Stop defending it. It is but a few steps removed from lynching. And you recall, do you not, that the center of the Gospels is the story of the passion of our Lord who was lynched by Romans who perceived him as a threat?
I’ll end with a word from the great neo-Orthodox theologian Karl Barth, a man acquainted with evil in the form of Nazism and who, along with a small group of other ministers, signed the Barmen Declaration, refusing to swear an oath to the Fuhrer. This is what he said in the 20 century—it is as apt today for your hearing as then: “The time is not always ripe. It may be past, it may be still to come. But woe to the church if when the time does come it is silent….”
Speak up for justice. Rescind Stand Your Ground for the blasphemous sham it is. Do it because were the roles reversed, you would want someone to cry out for your murdered child.
In the Name of the Murdered and Risen Christ,
Dr. Micheal Bledsoe
