UNITY IN CHRIST: ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

What is the real Problem?

Dealing with the problems we have today seems to be overwhelming in a lot of ways, especially with a growing number of cities dealing with rioting, looting and death. These problems will not go away by themselves and fighting violence with violence will only make things worse. Our focus truly needs to be on the ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.

As we continue to look at the after-affect, nothing is getting solved. This seems to have been the problem for such a long time, we cannot take the blinders off to see that we are blind to the cause, only dealing with the consequences.

Recently one of my friends on social media posted something that was true but, I felt, incomplete. It deals with the 17-year-old arrested for the shootings in Kenosha. I am going to paste what my friend wrote. I will not name my friend because I respect my friend’s opinion, and I respect the friendship. I am not trying to bring down my friend in any way. This is a copy and paste, I want to use this post to see where we seem to be falling short in our actions.

“My thoughts….

It is reported that a 17 year old young man has been arrested for the shootings in Kenosha last night. He had an avid interest in law enforcement and a supporter of Blues Lives Matter. Now, with the ongoing and unhindered rioting, looting, assaults on person and property, arson and deaths this occurence comes as no surprise to me. In fact, I’m surprised that more vigilantes have not acted. This 17 year old, at a very impressionable age has, like all of us, seen and heard of all the lawlessness. He may have underlying emotional problems; I don’t know. I would submit this constant nationwide lawlessness likely prompted him to cross state lines from Illinois to ” do something about the situation “.

I do believe that he should pay the price for his crimes if proven guilty in a court of law but I also believe the organizations promoting, financing, and involved in the riotous acts are maybe equally guilty for their constant drumbeat of lawlessness. And I also include governors, mayors, and city councils who continue to appease these groups and their actions.”

This post is like so many others I have seen, where the person posting writes, let us deal with these individuals causing the problems as well as the governors, mayors, and city councils. I do not see one mention of why this is happening in the first place and addressing that. The friend who wrote this is a friend in Christ and I just want to say, we can choose to be better stewards of the gifts God has given us. We will share the word of God in a better way, when we stop dividing each other and focus more on uniting.

From the End to Beginning

We are going to work backward, from the end result to the beginning: Why were these folks shot? The individuals were shot supposedly by the young man, who would not have been there if there was no rioting going on. No riot then no shooter. What was the cause of the riots? The riots began when someone took advantage of a protest and decided to insert rioting and looting under the cover of the protest to achieve their own agenda. That agenda could be several things and could be a number of reasons. For example, they just wanted to steal, or they wanted to cause mob violence to hurt others. Wanting to cause violence could happen with supporters of the protesters, or with those against the protest to make it look as though the protesters caused the violence. We have seen that on many occasions.

There are hundreds of protests going on all over our country, and most all of them are peaceful. We tend to focus on the small number where someone has hijacked the protest for their own need, to invoke violence. Why are these protests even happening? To a large degree, the protests are happening because someone has a need to be heard. It is our right to have a peaceful protest, and it is a terrible shame that some are being used as a cover to do evil. The protests we are mainly focusing on are the protests involving persons of color being treated in a way none of us would want ourselves, our family, or anyone we know treated. And we have seen it over and over.

The shootings or mistreatments are not being addressed adequately, that is apparent because they continue to happen. These actions stem from the culture we have developed over the centuries in this country and throughout the world. Can we change the culture? Our culture will not change with just local government, or state government, or national government, it takes everyone working TOGETHER, not by causing DIVISION and blaming each other. This is what we continue to do, but this behavior STARTS FROM THE TOP and works down. Will our Leaders please Step Up? It is time to make a change, leaders need to lead instead of causing more divide or things WILL get even worse.

How it Began

Time to move forward and look at this problem from the BEGINNING, not the end. Centuries of culture has poisoned us, and our leaders will not lead change but instead allow the culture to continue infesting many to do injustices. Continuing injustices not being heard or addressed over a long period of time are being voiced through protest, and some of those protests are being used as cover for evil acts. Evil is being met with even more evil and so this is how we get to where we are now.

Ultimately, we all need Christ, and if we were all preaching and teaching how Jesus would have us do, our problems would go away. The Bible tells us, this will not happen for everyone on this earth, but we can still pray and have hope. If our world or our nation wants positive change it will need to happen through our world leaders, example holds a lot of weight, and a Christ-like example would surely be awesome.

Time to stop blaming part of the problem, it is time to look at the ROOT OF THE PROBLEM, there lies the blame.

Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

What are your thoughts? What are some of your ideas? Leave a reply!

Rev. M Silas Boyd