Sinners and selective outrage

Whenever I read about all the rioting and pointless destruction and laughable “die-ins” at places like Toys R Us, I’m astonished. I find it incredible that the unfortunate deaths of two black men resisting arrest have become a cause célèbre.

People are killed every day for the dumbest of reasons. Why the selective outrage over these incidents, when there are so many more that involve young black men killing young black men? People have become desensitized to the horror of it all. Yet white police officers killing “black bodies” has gone global. Why?

It’s because of the same reasons shows like Law & Order don’t reflect actual homicide statistics in New York City. Black men commit the majority of homicides, but I suppose it’s thrilling, not to mention more entertaining, to watch—week after week—rich, white people doing the killing. You want a true reflection of violent crime? Watch your local news.

Where are the heartfelt articles from Christians bemoaning black-on-black violence and “teen” flash mobs attacking white people? Where were the hand-wringing sentiments when a menacing mob of “youth” killed an 88-year-old white WWII veteran or beat a white man to death near Ferguson with a hammer in front of his pregnant wife? As for the straw man “black lives matter” meme, which has reached absurd proportions, who said black lives don’t matter? To whom don’t they matter? Black women account for at least 30 percent of all abortions in the United States. Blacks are disproportionately crime perpetrators and victims. Don’t those black lives matter? To whom do they matter? Is a black life important only if a white man ends it?

Some liberals don’t like conservatives bringing up black-on-black and black-on-white crime. These inconvenient facts aren’t very interesting or profitable. But the image of a menacing white, black body–hating “militarized” cop—it’s the stuff of liberal fantasies. Bonus points if his eyes are blue.

I expect hypocrisy from liberals. Their method of operation is to stoke class and racial envy and encourage covetousness. By the way, these are sins. Coveting is so bad in God’s sight, He listed it among the Ten Commandments! But Christians should be at the forefront in holding people accountable for their own actions, making no excuses for them, and rejecting charges of so-called white privilege. Treating black people like morally deficient children is the real bigotry.

In a previous column, I discussed what I consider much more pressing problems in the wake of Ferguson: family instability and fatherlessness. An intact family won’t fix everything, but it gives children, vulnerable and impressionable, some protection. God designed marriage and the family this way for a reason.

Trying to solve real problems requires people to look in the mirror. You can pander to the point of slithering on your belly in supplication. It won’t work. We are all sinners, including this writer. I know sinners. I know denial. I know fear. I know unrighteous indignation. I also know shame, guilt, confession, repentance, and forgiveness.