Post on 12-May-2023
DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS: A TESTIMONY FROM THE PROPHET MICAH ON
THE 2014 FERGUSON EPISODE
Dustin Arbuckle
Professor Herbert R. Marbury
5 December 2014
DIV-3108: Eighth-Century Prophets
My utmost commitments, the theological claims upon which I
would “stake everything” are inextricably tied to taking a stand
for the weak, poor, powerless, oppressed, children and childlike.
I would give it all up to help those who are abused and
overburdened; there is nothing worse than bullying and exploiting
those who cannot defend themselves. In order for God to be God,
he must be concerned with liberating the oppressed and judging
the oppressor. I believe that God’s anguish, fears, desires, and
actions are overtly manifest through people all over the world.
If someone is discussing God but they are depicting God as
unloving then it is not God they are discussing. This is my
embedded theology and my life is geared toward it –it is
inconceivable for it to be geared any other way. If God is not a
God who protects the vulnerable and responds to injustice, then
God does not exist. This is not to say, however, that every
wrong will be righted, at the hand of God, during our time on
earth.
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My embedded theology gives rise to a helpful way of
discussing God, a new metaphor. While all metaphors for God are
limited, certain metaphors like God as a husband in the Book of
Hosea are particularly limited and carry potentially destructive
ramifications for understanding God. A better metaphor for
understanding God is as a beehive. The significance behind using
the beehive as a metaphor for God is, first, to give a
representation of God as Emmanuel or “God with us,” for we are
the bees. Second, it is to disembody God – thus avoiding
engendering a genderless God – and to symbolically show a
community of equals. The bees are fruitful in that they not only
produce honey in their own community but they also pollinate
flowers in the surrounding areas. The hive is essentially what
the bees make it – our “Emmanuel community” is what we make it.
In the same way that communities are affected by systems of
oppression in society, the bees have an oppressor – the giant
hornet. These ruthless killers can rapidly destroy the bees’
colonies. The hornet, which creeps into the beehive looking for
a bee to devour, is a symbol of state brutality. It can also be
seen as the evil work or coercion of Satan in society.
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Specifically, the type of bee in the metaphor is the
Japanese honeybee because they possess the unique ability to
protect themselves against the oppression of the hornets. When
the hornet enters the hive of the Japanese honeybee, it begins to
look for bees to eat, however, the bees have an innate defense
against the hornet. They immediately and simultaneously motion
to each other their escape plan by doing a rapid sway of their
abdomen. Soon, the hornet starts to attack the bees, and, in
unison, they fearlessly swarm it, engulfing it with their bodies.
Then, the bees start to vibrate their abdomens raising their
collective temperature up to one hundred seventeen degrees. The
Japanese honeybee can tolerate a temperature of one hundred
eighteen degrees, while the hornet can tolerate a temperature of
one hundred fifteen degrees. So, quite effectively, the bees cook
the hornet alive. The metaphor fits into my embedded theology
because it shows the community concerned with protecting the
vulnerable at all costs. Hence, the colony of bees synthesizes
its collective will in order to focus it on one enemy. In this
scenario, a single bee would not be effective, it would not stand
a chance against the hornet, as it would be too vulnerable. The
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community takes action to carry out the Lord’s will and to
implement the Lord’s judgment. This is the Lord’s action through
the community. Thus, my idea of God resides in the will and
activity of the people, God is not some ephemeral thing ‘out
there’ that is disengaged with humanity. Scripture and the
values I hold dear that arise from it construct my embedded
theology and the metaphor that reflects it.
The lessons of the biblical prophets from the eighth-century
are ideal for representing and defending my concern of social
justice for the disadvantaged. They form a primary portion of my
embedded theology. Perhaps more than any other book in the
Hebrew Bible, Micah relates an indignance over the ways in which
the rich and powerful state uses every opportunity to exploit the
poor and the weak. Today, state brutality is the cause of a
similar purview of despair, danger, and uncertainty. If Micah’s
ministry began during the reign of Jotham, a time of threat and
insecurity, it is especially true that Micah was in the midst of
and was repulsed by exorbitant state brutality.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you
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but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?—Micah 6:8 (NRSV)
Micah offers a direct challenge to humanity, “what does the
Lord require?” Micah makes it easy for his listeners by
answering his question for them. All that is necessary to be in
communion with YHWH is to do justice and to love kindness whilst
maintaining a humble resolve. Although, the word choice
“require” is not meant to be approach lightly, it is a strict
word.
“History-telling” is typically done from the point of view
of the elite, ruling class, and the ‘victors.’ D. N. Premnath
constructs one of the many social worlds that have been neglected
by historians in their writings, namely the lower-class group
known as the peasants. One of the primary reasons that groups
such as the peasants have gone so long without their own voice or
history is because they lacked the necessary means to accomplish
such a task; above all, they lacked the luxury of time. Every
day these farmers worked for upwards of twelve hours simply to
subsist. At times, even this was not enough and, alas, families
would be forced to sell daughters and sons into slavery.
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Premnath’s work is helpful for understanding the prophets.
His prominent narrative, as related by the prophets, is social
justice. Repeatedly, the prophets give a voice to the socially
oppressed because in their world they faced similar kinds of
injustices. Premnath presents a social history that focuses on
the economic and political history of a historically oppressed
social group, the peasants. He contributes one of the many
missing pieces from the puzzle of recounting the things that have
happened, which can be useful for instructing the present and
future. History-telling is important when it can inform ensuing
actions, lest we repeat past mistakes or change that which
works.1 The author of the book of Micah does what Premnath
accomplishes. Micah makes the cries of the oppressed lower-class
known while discussing the actions of the oppressors on a moral
level. YHWH chose him to publicize YHWH’s will and condemn the
ruling class for their oppression of the subjugated classes.
The title of the book of Micah (mīkāh 1:1, or mīkāyāh
Jeremiah 26:18) comes from the short version of the Hebrew name
mīkāyāhū or mīkāyehū, which means ‘Who is like YHWY?’ This name 1 D. N. Premnath, Eighth-Century Prophets: A Social Analysis, (St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press).
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is intended to be a testimony of praise and awe for a God who is
like no other.2 He is the God who judges but also saves, who is
“majestic in wrath and astonishing in compassion, worker of
justice and promiser of forgiveness.”3 The historical
composition of the book of Micah spreads from the second half of
the eighth-century to the second century BCE. The content of the
book provides a testimony of YHWY and prophetic witness for
contemporary times.
Judgment and God’s covenant with Israel are two major themes
in the book of Micah. Micah was the divinely appointed presenter
of YHWH’s judgment for Samaria and Jerusalem’s crime. He
interpreted events that transpired as sin and declared how YHWH
intervened. Using the most forceful language in 3:2-3, Micah
denounces leaders who “tear the skin off my people . . . and
break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a
kettle” (NRSV). After he condemned the false prophets, who led
the community astray in order to gain more wealth, and indicted
those who administered policy and justice, who possessed the
2 James Luther Mays, Micah: A Commentary (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), 1.3 Mays, Micah, 1.
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power to do evil as they pleased, they suffered punishment. The
theme of covenant is particularly evident by the prophets. Time
and time again the Israelites breach the contract they have with
YHWH. Even with the Exodus and entry into the Promised Land
afresh in their memory, the Israelites lost confidence in YHWH
and sacrificed their fidelity. Invariably, this leads to social
injustice. Though Micah met opposition, his mission was to
enlighten the community so that they could make a collective
response to the injustice of the state, to call the lost back
into the community.
The beauty of God’s word is that it is relevant to all
generations. What happens in the bible happens all over the
world. In particular, Micah is speaking to what is happening in
Ferguson, Missouri; the activity of YHWH through the community
can be seen all over the city. What happens in Micah is
happening in Ferguson. The metaphor of the hive also speaks to
the realities in Ferguson. The community, or colony of bees, is
YHWH’s people – who are the manifestation of the activity of YHWH
in the world. YHWH passes judgment through the movement of his
people. State brutality, or the hornet, is the manifestation of
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the corruption of the systems of law. The bees in the metaphor
display the right response to the hornet, which is banding
together to burn the oppression they face down. Unfortunately,
most white people have failed to band together with the
community to protect the swallowed bees like Michael Brown.
On August 9th, Michael Brown was shot around midday.
Officer Wilson was responding to a call unrelated to Brown but
encountered him by happenstance. Upon consulting Ferguson Market
and Liquor’s video recording, Brown appears to have merely stolen
cigars from a convenience store. It is undetermined whether
Wilson had knowledge of this before his confrontation with
Brown.4 While much is unclear despite considerable
investigation, what is known is that Officer Wilson unloaded at
least six bullets into the unarmed teenager’s body, two of which
perforated his head.
At 8:00pm central time, on Monday, November 24, 2014,
nervous energy filled the air in Clayton, Missouri. A crowd held
its breath as Robert McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecuting 4 Scott Neuman, “Ferguson Timeline: Grief, Anger And Tension.” National Public Radio, November 24, 2014. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/24/364103735/ferguson-timeline-grief-anger-and-tension (accessed November 29, 2014).
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attorney, announced the Grand Jury’s decision on the prosecution
of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, a white male,
for fatally shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed black male.
“Justice for – Michael Brown,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and other
screams of outrage echoed through the city streets while picket
signs brandished contentions like “Black lives matter – all lives
matter.” Police departments stood by on tactical alert in many
major cities around the country, including Los Angeles.
McCulloch’s statement reverberated throughout the nation:
“[The Grand Jury] determined that no probable cause exists to
file any charge against officer Darren Wilson and returned to no
true bill on each of the five indictments.” This motif of
injustice for the black community in the narrative of anti-
blackness pulled the linchpin from YHWH’s wrath – effectively
shaking the hive, a community seeking retributive justice.
The legacy of the prophets allows us to see God’s judgment
in the world today. People all over the world watched the
denunciation of leaders immediately following the Grand Jury’s
announcement, as it was globally televised. The judgment for the
atrocity of state brutality rained down on Ferguson, a city built
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at the expense of the black population’s bloodshed. Jerusalem,
like Ferguson, was built at the expense of the vulnerable; for
that, YHWH devastated Jerusalem. The activity of YHWH resides in
the people and moves through the people. This was not a night of
misdirected rage, it was truly an episode of God’s judgment of
leaders prophesied in the prophets ‘books of doom.’ By ignoring
what YHWH requires, justice and kindness, the state engaged in a
covenant of infidelity to YHWH. The leaders expressed worship
toward their gods Wealth and Comfort. Therefore, a dozen
buildings were set on fire and pedestrians shot an estimated one
hundred fifty bullets into the air. The community looted
Ferguson Market and Liquor, Walgreens, Family Dollar, and
AutoZone. Rocks and bottles hailed continuously on the
surrounding reporters, police officers, and bystanders. Little
Caesar’s Pizza, a Beauty shop, and two police cars were burned to
the ground; fires continued burning through the following day.5
If Micah was alive today, he would be in the community, looking 5 Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard, Kevin McCoy, Kevin Johnson, LauraPetrecca, Donna Leinwand, Laura Mandaro, Ryan Carey-Mahoney, David Jesse, and Katease Stafford, “Ferguson burning after grand jury announcement.” Detroit Free Press and AP, November 25, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/24/ferguson-protests-michael-brown/70067388/ (accessed November 29, 2014).
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at the fires, and recognizing them as the hand of God tearing
down the walls of injustice. Today’s prophetic witness should
see and know the same. In the spirit of lex talionis, God’s judgment
took the form of inescapable pillaging because that is exactly
what has continually been done to black people.
The state gave an aggressive response to its judgment –
actually, I believe they were doing as John Stewart remarked,
“auditioning for Robocop.” Armed with riot gear and battle
machines, the police shot beanbags, used pepper spray, and rained
a continuous barrage of tear gas on a crowd consisting of
approximately three hundred people. Twenty-nine arrests were
made. Notwithstanding its push back, the city of Ferguson, and
many others, could not resist the judgment of YHWH. Similarly,
the community has come together for demonstrations at various
locations around the world, including Times Square in New York;
Tempe, Arizona; Oakland, California; Detroit, Michigan; and
Philadelphia and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Like Micah, the
community endowed with the knowledge of legal, economic, and
social justice must be the spokesperson for God. In the way that
Micah indicted leaders, we must see that the state is indicted
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for its wrongdoings, in order to find justice, perhaps through
demanding the U.S. Department of Justice to intercede. Prayer
vigils, moments of silence, and prayers offer encouragement to
the community, and strengthen it. YHWH’s work through the
community, though met with respite, can crush the brutal and
powerful fist of the state.
In an interview, a remarkably unperturbed looking Darren
Wilson pronounced, “I did my job that day.” And he is right; he
did do his job that day; he employed his training and followed
his orders under the protocol consistent with which the system
was designed – albeit, the protocols and the laws are corrupt.
Thus, he did not do his job the way it should have been done. The
District Attorney never should have used a Grand Jury in the
first place. What he should have done immediately is indict the
police officer. The activities of the Grand Jury represent a
system that is corrupt. Judge Sol Wachtler stated that it is
remarkably easy for the prosecutor of the Grand Jury to indict
someone, that they would indict a “ham sandwich” if it was put on
trial.6 A similar phenomenon occurs when police officers are put6 Contributing: Meghan Hoyer, Paul Overberg and John Bacon, “Grand jury charges are easy, except against police.” November
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on trial: they are almost never indicted. The Grand Jury in
charge of Wilson’s indictment was manipulated. McCulloch, very
atypically, gave the jury an overwhelming amount of evidence to
keep Wilson from being indicted. Wilson and nearly every witness
had a different account of the events that transpired.
Nonetheless, it cannot be overlooked that Brown will forever be
silenced from telling his account of the story. Highly technical
evidence was presented to the jury, like gunpowder soot vs.
residue and Brown’s entry vs. exit bullet wounds. Legal experts
said that “put together, all the evidence served to overwhelm,
and even confuse, the grand jury,” leaving many confused by
McCulloch’s choice to carry out the proceedings, including his
decision to do the procession in secret as opposed to an open
court.7 Ben Trachtenberg, a law professor from the University of
Missouri, stated that the Grand Jury was presented with evidence
that reinforced Wilson’s account of the incident rather than
assured an indictment. Instead of poking holes in Wilson’s
testimony, as expected of prosecutors in order to ensure that it
25, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/25/ferguson-grand-jury/70098616/ (Accessed December 4, 2014)7 Ibid.
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is accurate, McCulloch let him speak as he pleased. Brown’s
family lawyer said that McCulloch defended Wilson as opposed to
prosecuting him.8 Nevertheless, to end systemic injustice and
racism, not just the laws of the state need to change, but the
eyes of people need to change in the way that they view black
people, and hearts need to be transformed.
The metaphor of the hive, its colony of bees, and the hornet
really hits on an honest and undeniable reality when we realize
that the bees, the community, does not always triumph. It is all
too often that the hornet swallows-up bees. More recently, Tamir
Rice, a twelve-year-old boy who was playing outside in the snow
with a toy gun, twirling it around his finger as little boys do,
was shot dead by a police officer. Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner,
Darrien Hunt, John Crawford, Ezell Ford, Vonderrit Myers, Akai
Gurley, Tanisha Anderson, Michelle Cusseaux, and Michael Brown
are all dead because of the oppression of the state. However,
God responds to threats. Jerusalem can be rebuilt. YHWH is the
protector of the oppressed, defender of the weak and powerless,
for these are YHWH’s people.
8 Ibid.
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The faith community from which I come is situated in Orange
County, California. My church is composed of predominantly
middle to upper class white people. Though my faith community
values love above all else, it does not understand the
experiences of the black population. Most people my faith
community have a difficult time seeing such injustices because
society creates a good outcome for them; it affirms their
existence and makes them blind to the denial of the people on the
margin or society. This creates divisions within society and
causes the vulnerable poor and lower class to be oppressed. I
believe education can act as an equalizer and help my community
to make informed decisions.
The U.S. Department of Justice has recorded instances of
police brutality, that is, instances of excessive force,
unnecessary shootings, racial harassment, and a code of silence
whereby officers are required by their colleagues to cover up or
deny irresponsible behavior, more than any other civil disorder.
In her article, Policing the Police, Mary Powers elucidates how
the church’s role in seeking justice and police accountability is
of paramount importance. She writes, that “[Police abuse] shreds
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the peace and stability of our neighborhoods, exacerbates racial
tension, and costs millions of dollars in property damage, such
disturbances take a severe toll on every segment of society.”9
In Ferguson, ninety-three percent of the police are white and
sixty-three percent of the community is black. Ninety-two percent
of police searches and eighty-six percent of car stops are for
black people. These are the cops who assaulted an innocent black
man and charged him for damaging government property because his
blood had gotten on their uniforms.10
Like today, it was difficult for Micah’s community to see
his words as prophetic; in 2:6-11 Micah is met with threats by
people who want society to stay as it is, harming God’s people
for their benefit. Dear brothers and sisters, you are
comfortable in Jerusalem because the city is designed to support
you. The looting and pillaging in Ferguson horrifies you because
you are comfortable with the way society is structured. So why
9 Mary D. Powers, Policing the Police: The Role of the Religious Community (Church & Society 87 no 4 Mr-Ap, 1997), 83.10 “Ferguson cops beat innocent man, then charged him with bleeding on their uniforms.” The Daily Beast, August 15, 2014. http://rt.com/usa/180680-ferguson-henry-davis-blood/ (Accessed December 5, 2014).
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change it? Because society does not make the lives of black
people comfortable – for the marginalization of certain groups of
society is truly horrifying the way it is now. Turn yourself
outward, put yourself in the black community’s shoes and see the
white supremacist mode that the city operates in today. It is
difficult to see police officers doing bad things because so many
do not want to believe that they do bad things, we do not want to
believe the law is not just. Society is designed to make white
people feel safe so they easily buy into lies like Attorney
General Holder’s pledge to “Follow the facts, wherever they may
take us,” and that a “thorough and complete investigation” was
conducted. The city of Ferguson represents societal structures
that sustain white people’s lives. How does the state create a
state trooper that causes people to be afraid? What ideologies
have to come together to produce him? Hence, in a sense, the
police are a victim as well, though in a marginal way. They are
the product of the structures that create them, a wider brutality
that is the state as well, which protects the elites. The police
are the servants of the elite.
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Police officers are trained to reinforce their own bias –
and that is what they do, that is why little non-white boys get
killed. They operate under a hermeneutic of suspicion for black
people. Their implicit bias permeates everything they see and
every action they take. Today’s police officers reign under the
guise ‘protector of all,’ when so many are really protectors of
white people. If a white male gets pulled over by a cop and his
hands are trembling as he pulls his identification out from his
wallet it is because he is afraid that the officer might not let
him off with just a warning. If a black male’s hands are
trembling it is because he has drugs hidden in his car, which
evidentially gives the officer warrant to turn his vehicle
upside-down looking for them, that is, it gives the officer
warrant to look for a delusion. When police officers stop and
harass black people who “look suspicious,” white supremacy is
asserting, “you can’t be a part of our society and wear those
clothes,” etc. It is not surprising that Michael Brown “faced
the officer, turner away, and turned back again;” he was probably
terrified, in fear that Wilson would treat Brown as the police
treat all black men. Clearly, this lens causes death. Tamir
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Rice is dead because of the hermeneutic of suspicion. When the
police approached the twelve year old, they did not talk to him,
they did not question whether the boy is simply playing with a
toy like the officers did when they were boys, they just pulled
the trigger. Only a few seconds passed from the time the
officers arrived on the scene to the time that they left Tamir
Rice bleeding in the snow. The media depicts black men as
criminals from poor upbringings. It described Tamir as a boy who
did not quite fit in and one who came from parents with misdeeds.
A reporter from Cleveland.com wrote, “Tamir Rice’s father has a
history of violence against women.”11 A typical narrative when
the state is involved that prevents many from doing anything
about it. Moreover, the lens also creates a psychologically
detrimental living environment for black people. It holds them
captive to the deceptions that the lens wearer has about them.
This deception quickly becomes all too real for many people, who
often end up believing such prejudice.11 Brandon Blackwell, “Tamir Rice's father has history of domestic violence.” Northeast Ohio Media Group, November 26, 2014. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/11/tamir_rices_father_has_history.html (accessed December 5, 2014).
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Thus, a problem with my metaphor is that the hive, the
community, God’s people, so often does not respond rightly. It
does not band together and protect the weak and oppressed – it is
apathetic. Most law-abiding citizens see no role for themselves
in stopping such violence, or simply do not see the violence
itself. But even more egregiously, the community does not care;
they do not really care if the state abuses a few people to keep
them safe. It is an, “as long as they don’t kill in my name,”
kind of demeanor. People view police brutality as isolated
instances that exist for the “greater good,” or they are simply
“state issues that don’t involve me.” The metaphor calls the
community into conflict because the state acts on behalf of the
community and most white people do trust the police and they do
trust the state – expectedly. Furthermore, the white population
immediately rushes to “Is the officer going to get a fair
shake?,” when it should be paying attention to the death of a
fellow human. However, Ferguson is not an ambiguous agenda
attached as a unarmed black teenager shot by a white police
officer that is the media’s trick to kindle sympathy the black
teenager, it is actually an unarmed black teenager shot by a
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white cop. It is terrible and it is an incident that has been
systemically repeated time and time again. In our society, black
people are vulnerable. It is the community’s right, but more
importantly, the community’s responsibility to regulate the
agencies of the state that they rightfully “own.” Like the bees,
the community must be unified in its resistance against things
like state brutality. If we are not looking out for what is best
for the community then it will not function the way that it
should. News flash: the community is not functioning the way
that it should and that is why buildings are being burned down.
For the sake of your own judgment, reassess your implicit
associations. One cannot put faith into a community that does
not look after all its members, or provides the ability for all
to have the same privileges, bee-like productiveness, or a sense
of belonging,
Dear brothers and sisters, are you joining hands with the
community? We must not doubt YHWH’s ability to move through us.
We must be willing to risk it all, like the bees. Society cannot
go on operating off the backs of the oppressed. Stereotyping and
white supremacy are why Michael Brown and Eric Garner are dead –
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not stealing and selling untaxed cigarettes. The system runs on
a legal system, yet one that is gerrymandered. For some, society
assumes guilty and never proves innocent. We must not only
change our local, state, and federal governments, but also
ourselves. YHWH does not let testimonials like “it looked like
the toy gun was real” get swept under the rug. Each non-
indictment gives the police permission to kill black people. We
cannot be comfortable living while society raids the lives of the
poor. Micah’s sayings were remembered and treasured by the
people who were most at risk by the sins of the state. Though we
(white people) are not put at risk by the sins of the state, we
must not forget Micah’s words. Though those who administer
justice and policy have violated conduct and the court, they must
be turned around and led back into the community. The gods
Wealth and Comfort must be destroyed so YHWH can take the
rightful place. Though now Zion is destroyed, though so many are
captive in Babylon, faith in YHWH can assure exodus, faith in
YHWH can assure resurrection. We must ask ourselves, ‘Who is
really like YHWH?’ The bees must be vigilant and continually
come together whenever a threat is posed.
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Dear brothers and sisters, take a closer look at whom you
are viewing as suspicious. For the accomplished neurosurgeon who
cannot hail a cab because he is black. For the black priest
dressed in full vestments who was detained and humiliated by the
police outside of his church because they thought the man they
were pursuing may have disguised himself. For the black twelve
year old who the police did not bother getting a closer look at
before they gunned him down. For the unarmed black teenager who
was shot until he was dead for being black. For the countless
Ferguson events that happen around the globe daily.
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