"The Opposite Of Poverty Is Not Wealth. The Opposite Of Poverty Is Justice."

Not my words; which is a kind of justice in itself. 

 I have seen a couple of posts on the Derek Chauvin trial where people have made a distinction between justice and accountability. I tend to agree that the verdict was to hold Chauvin accountable for this actions, but it doesn't represent justice. Justice is a much harder. Even if George Floyd lived, he still lived in a world of injustice. As this year has hammered home, to be a person of color in America is to live with constant injustice. To be poor in America is to live with injustice. His addiction may have flowed from the injustices he suffered, but has its own forms of injustice. In Rev. Wright I see a call for justice, so much more than accountability. Again I am reminded of the Reinhold Niebuhr quote, “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope." I don't think even approaching racial justice in America will be accomplished in my life time, or even my children's lifetimes. But I do see this in the words of Rev. Wright, that we must move toward that justice. 

Racism in America is ultimately a white society problem. Obama could never speak as directly to it as Biden. The victims need to speak their stories and call for justice, but it is ultimately the perpetrators (or those that stand aside) that must deliver that justice. 

I have prayed for George Floyd's friends and family, for those that loved and miss him. I have also tried (and mostly failed) to pray for Derek Chauvin. In that hope for justice, there must be a hope for even Derek Chauvin to be saved. Not in some "come to Jesus" saving, but in an awakening, an awareness of his actions and an atonement. For if there isn't that hope of that kind of being saved in him, how cant there be in our society or even myself. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, the leader of the denomination I currently attend called racism an existential crisis for those that believe. An existential crisis for whites that believe. It is by believing it goes to the heart of our faith, that I think we have any chance to move forward so that maybe my grandchildren or greatgrandchildren can live in a better world. 

And a link.

"Justice from below."  I like that phrase.