We failed you

Despite my calm demeanor and jovial attitude, there is a quiet rage inside of me. Today I found out someone murdered my friend. Someone shot him near his home and he died down the street at Duke Hospital. My friend, who has a wife, whose kids I taught in Sunday school. He is dead.

Of course I am grieved. Of course, my heart is broken. Beneath the grief and sadness of my heart, I am filled with rage. A rage which will only be calmed when neglect ends. A bullet brought an end to my friends life but our society killed him long before. This man's family lived in a part of town where property values are low and crime is high. A part of town where people come to help but seldom stay long enough to make a difference. The type of place that many of the kids I teach live. A part of town where politicians always mention but rarely visit. This part of town where people know to avoid at night. Somehow one of the most famous places in Durham is the most forsaken.

Then the whisper, "...when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?.. whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me." This scripture is a command to love others and improve their conditions, especially when these people cannot pay you back. Yet, we consistently make choices as Christians which do the opposite. Our indifference, which is an avoidance of confronting the reality within our cities,  maintains the conditions which get my friend murdered. Christians can be indifferent in this country because our focus is on personal holinness. An emphasis on individual piety inevitably leads to community neglect.

 Neglect is a pandemic, more lethal than any nuclear weapon, and responsible for the deaths of billions. It is responsible for the death of my friend. We neglect only the tasks and actions which are of minimal importance. However, I believe most of us neglect because we are waiting for a more opportune time. For example, I may set aside paying a bill until I receive my paycheck. When this logic is applied to the principles of justice and sacrificial love, impoverished communities and the vulnerable of our society suffer more poignantly. Their suffering experiences a temporary boon, due to our neglect. Regrettably, our politicians and the general populace have made choices to delay loving our neighbors as ourselves for centuries of domestic policy. Now in 2017, we have discarded our brothers and sisters for so long we do not even interpret our actions as neglect. We use other language to explain away the pangs of guilt which prick our conscious. 

Yes, I am angry. I have watched indifference pierce through our communities.  I am angry at the choices of my country. I am angry that we have witheld love from so many for so long. As a child I saw adults give reasons for their inaction. I felt the uncertainty of trying to make sense of Christian leaders abdicating responsibility for the suffering of my friends and their families. My feelings as a child have only increased as a man; except now I find myself with the same dilemma as those who have come before me. I have neglected loving my neighbor. I despair at my inadequacy but will not remain in a place of hopelessness. In Christ, I have the knowledge and power to work to spread the divine agenda of justice and sacrifical love to my community.

To my brother, I love you. I will miss you. I am working to eradicate the circumstances of our society which embloden men and women to murder their own. I cannot be angry with your murderer though. I know you would ask me to pray for them. So I will. You have shown me how to love God and love people within the brevity of our friendship. I will see you later F.M.