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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